THE SPIRIT OF
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES
BY HIS FRIEND
JEAN PIERRE CAMUS*~
BISHOP OF BELLEY
NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION
WITH A PREFACE BY HIS GRACE THE
ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.
TRANSLATED BY J. S.
LONDON
BURNS OATES & WASHBOURNE LTD.
PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
1925
BosTON COULM
CHMYSTA@Y WiLL, N4
Hihil Obstat:
m $F, THOS. BERGH, O.S.B.
CENSOR DEPUTATUS
Emprimatur :
E. CANONICUS SURMONT
VICARIUS GENERALIS
Westmonasterii
die 27th Maii 1910
Made and Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS
Preface by the Archbishop of Westminster as sta
Sketch of Jean Pierre Camus, Bishop of Belley .. ag
The French Publisher to the reader in 1639 ... oats
Upon perfect virtue.. g
Blessed Francis’ estimate of various virtues
Upon the lesser virtues -
Upon increase of Faith
Upon temptations against F aith .
Upon the same subject
Upon confidence i in God ....
Our misery appeals to God’s mercy
Upon self distrust
Upon the justice and mercy ‘of God
On waiting upon God
On the difference between a 2 holy desire of reward and
a mercenary spirit a ce i e.
Continuation of the same subject ..
God should suffice for us all
Charity the short road to perfection
Upon what it is to love God truly
Upon the Love of God in general ... ive
All for Love of God.. m ae x
The same subject continued
Upon the Love of God called love ‘of benwvelenee
Disinterested Love of God . Si avers
Upon the character of a true Christian :
Upon not putting limits to our Love of God ...
Upon the law and the just man ... nett:
Upon desires
How Charity excels ‘both Faith and Hope
Some thoughts of Blessed Francis on the Passion
Upon the vanity of heathen philosophy ...
Upon the pure love of our pabaur i
Upon bearing with one another .
Upon fraternal correction ..
Upon finding excuses for the faults of our fellow-men
Upon not judging others ai - _
Upon judging ourselves
Upon slander and detraction
Upon hasty judgments ; eee ae E
Upon ridiculing one’s neighbour g n am
Upon contradicting others . :
Upon loving our enemies ...
PAGB
Vill CONTENTS
Upon forgiving our enemies
Upon the virtue of condescension .
How he adapted himself to times, “places and circum-
stances
Upon the deference due to inferiors and dependents ..
On the way to treat servants i
Another instance of his gentleness with his servants
His never refusing what was asked of him m
Upon almsgiving <4
His hopefulness in regard to the conversion of sinners
His solicitude for malefactors condemned to death
Upon the small number of the elect ... os
To love to be hated, and to hate to be loved .
Upon obedience Res ate
Upon the obedience that may be practised by Superiors
An instance of his obedience i ; m ;
Upon the Love of Holy mies
Upon the same subject f
Upon poverty of opii
His love of the poor.
Upon the Christian view af Poverty
Upon Prosperity '
Upon Chastity and Charity
Upon purity of heart A
Upon Chastity and Humility
Upon Modesty a m
The contempt he felt for his body ny k..
Upon his Humility ... ; be ;
Upon humbleness in speech only ..
Upon various degrees of Humility
Upon Humiliation
Humility with regard to perfection
Upon excuses $ A. Ee
Upon our good name me
Upon despising the esteem of men =
Upon the virtues we should practice when culum-
niated wen E- .
Upon some spiritual maxims
Upon Patience es
How to profit by bearing with insults a
Upon bearing with importunities .
That he who complains sins
His calmness in tribulations
His test of patience in suffering .
Upon long illnesses .
His holy indifference | in illness ha pA ka Pi
Upon the shape of the Cross a a A
A diamond Cross ... A oat P
Holy Magdalen at the foot of the Cross ...
PAGE
101
103
104
109
IlI
iis
115
116
117
121
122
123
123
126
127
129
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137
138
139
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141
142
143
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150
FoI
156
157
159
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161
164
166
168
172
174
175
179
180
181
183
185
186
188
CONTENTS
Upon the power of gentleness and patience
A rejoinder both striking and instructive
His favourite beatitude
His gravity and affability ..
How he dealt with a criminal who "despaired of
salvation ... ae M; ya a
Upon mortification
Upon the same subject
Upon fasting .
Doubts solved as to ‘soldiers fasting
The golden mean in dispensations
Upon the words “ Eat of i ino that is set ‘before
you’ ‘ ae, ;
Upon the state ‘of perfection ;
Marks of progress in perfection RA oe
Upon the perfection aimed at in Religious Houses mn
Upon Frugality : vs om,
Flis esteem of the virtue of simplicity gm
His love of exactitude pe
The test of Religious Vocation .
Upon following the common life.
Upon Vocations :
Upon Prudence and ‘Simplicity .
The same subject continued
Upon mental prayer...
Upon Aspirations è
Upon interior recollection and ejaculatory prayers
Upon doing and enduring .. a í a
Upon Mortification and Prayer
Upon the Presence of God .
His unity of spirit with God
His gratitude to God for spiritual Nations .
Upon the shedding of tears
Upon joy and sadness
On the degrees of true devotion..
The test of true devotion ...
What it means to be a servant of Tods w:
That devotion does not always spring from Charity ..
Upon perfect contentment in the privation of all
content... ae TR Y sia 5
Upon the Will of God
His resignation to the Will of God aces
ie e must always submit ourselves to God’s holy
1 eee coc
His sublime thoughts on holy indifference -
Nothing save sin happens to us but by hd Will of God
Upon the same subject hi à Je
Upon abandoning ourselves to God
Upon interior desolation
1X
PAGE
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201
202
203
204
207
208
211
215
216
217
221
223
226
229
261
262
265
270
271
273
279
x CONTENTS
Upon the presence in our souls of the Grace of God...
Upon our wish to save our soul ...
Upon good natural inclinations ...
How to speak of God
Upon eccentricities in devotion ...
Upon Confraternities : oe
Upon intercourse with the world TA
Against over-eagerness
Upon the same subject
Upon liberty of spirit
Upon nature and grace TA
Upon exaggerated introspection ...
Upon interior reformation ...
His vision of the Most Holy Trinity
His devotion to our Blessed Lady...
His devotion to the Holy “e Sheet of Turin
Upon merit ...
Upon good will and good desires .
Against the making of rash vows ...
Upon the pro-passions of Our Lord
His victory over the passions of love and anger
Upon our passions and emotions ... ie ot
How he came to write his Philothea
Upon the example of the Saints ...
Upon the love of God’s word
His love of retirement tt ”
How he sanctified his recreations .
What he drew from lines of poetry ;
Upon being content with our condition in life.
Upon self-sufficiency and contentedness .
His reverence for the sick . Fis
Upon the care of the sick.
Upon speaking well of the dead..
Upon Death A
Upon wishing to die .. Ap:
Unon the desire of Heaven...
What it is to die in God
Upon length of life...
Upon Purgatory a on
Upon Penance eo ff
Upon penitent confusion ...
Upon interior peace amidst anxieties
Upon discouragement Ms on =
Upon rising after a fall... on T
Upon kindliness towards ourselves ae
Upon imperfections
The just man falls seven times in the day
Upon the purgative way ... Ri: Bs
Upon venial sin
CONTENTS
Upon complicity in the sins of another ...
Upon equivocating ... ga
Upon solitude
Upon vanity ...
Upon the knowledge which pufts: up
Upon scruples
Upon temptations
Upon the same subject
Thoughts on the Incarnation
Upon Confession and Communion
Upon Confession T
Upon a change of confessor. T
Upon different methods of direction
Advice upon having a Director
Upon true and mistaken zeal
Upon the institution of the Visitation Order
His defence of his new Congregation of the Visitation
Upon the odour of sanctity... s = m
He rebukes Pharisaism : a :
Upon religious Superiors ... ae a es
Upon unlearned Superiors ... ae TS ro
Upon the founding of Convents ... mr ki
Upon receiving the infirm into pee aa =
Upon self pity :
Upon the government of Nuns by religious men
That we must not be wedded to our own plans ...
His views regarding Ecclesiastical dignities
His promotion to the Bishopric of Geneva and his
refusal of the Archbishopric of Paris 2M
A Bishop’s care for his flock z
Upon the first duty of Bishops ;
Upon the pastoral charge ... inp an ies
Upon the care of souls
Upon learning and piety . a
Advice to Bishop Camus as 5 to resigning his See Fae
The joyous spirit of Blessed Francis
Upon daily Mass. His advice to a young Priest
A Priest saying Mass should be considerate of others
Blessed Francis encourages the Bishop of Belley ...
Upon a compassionate mind fe
Upon doing one’s duty without respect of persons ee
The honour due to virtue ... 7m san a
Upon memory and judgment
A Priest should not aim at imitating in a his germons
some particular preacher m oe a
Upon short sermons . re
Upon preaching and ‘preachers n
Blessed Francis and the Bishop of Belley’ S sermon
Upon controversy aA m . ag
468
469
472
484
xii CONTENTS
PAGE
The same subject continued cue im oes se A
Upon reason and reasoning ar a lt s GAO
Upon quoting Holy Scripture... en P a1 OO
Upon political diplomacy ... or ae ea +. WI
Upon ambition y e sa u ae . AD
Upon courts and courtiers ... ae ay an ... 404
Upon the Carnival ... RG s.. AJO
An instance of his compassion for ‘animals ne. oe 407
Upon hunting a ae os Be as ee
Upon the fear of ghosts ee b << a woe KOI
His portrait ... We a ee oars ee EOS
Upon his true charity Da = aes ee 1. 504
PREFACE,
The Spirit of a Saint we may, perhaps, regard
as the underlying characteristic which pervades
all his thoughts, words, and acts. It is the note
which sounds throughout the constant persevering
harmony which makes the holiness of his life.
Circumstances change. He grows from childhood
to boyhood; from youth to manhood. His time
of preparation is unnoticed by the world until the
moment comes when he is called to a_ public
activity which arrests attention. And essentially
he remains the same. [n private as in public, in
intimate conversation as in writings or discourses,
in the direction of individual consciences as in the
conduct of matters of wide importance, there is a
characteristic note which identifies him, and marks
him off apart even from other heroes of sanctity. -
We owe to a keen and close observer a know-
ledge of the spirit of St. Francis de Sales for which
we cannot be too grateful. Let it be granted that
Mgr. Camus had a very prolific imagination; that
he had an unconscious tendency to embroider facts;
that he read a meaning into words which thetr
speaker had no thought of imparting to them.
When all such allowances have been made, we
must still admit that he has given to us a picture
xiv Preface
of the Saint which we should be loath to lose; and
that his description of what the Saint habitually
thought and felt has made Saint Francis de Sales
a close personal friend to many to whom otherwise
he would have remained a mere chance acquaint-
ance,
The Bishop of Belley, while a devoted admirer,
was at the same time a critical observer of his
saintly friend. He wanted to know the reasons
of what he saw, he did not always approve, and
he was sufficiently indiscreet to put questions
which, probably, no one else would have dared to
frame. And thus we know more about St. Francis
than about any other Saint, and we owe real grati-
tude to his very candid, talkative, and out-spoken
episcopal colleague.
Many years ago a brief abridgment of the
‘“ Spirit of St. Francis de Sales ° was published
in English. It served its purpose, but left un-
satisfied the desire of his clients for a fuller work.
To-day the Sisters of the Visitation, now estab-
lished at Harrow-on-the-Hill, give abundant satis-
faction to this long-felt desire. Inspired by the
purpose of the late Dom Benedict Mackey, O.S.B.,
which his premature death prevented him from
accomplishing, and guided by the advice which he
left in writing, these Daughters of St. Francis of
Sales, on the occasion of their Tercentenary, give
to the English-speaking world a work which, in
its wise curtailment and still full detail, may be
called the quintessence of the Spirit of their
Master, the Founder of their Institute. We thank
them for their labour; and we beg God’s blessing
upon this book, that it may be the means of show-
Preface xv
ing to many souls that safe and easy way of
sanctification and salvation, which it was the special
mission of the saintly Bishop of Geneva to make
known to the world.
MH FRANCIS, ARCHBISHOP OF
WESTMINSTER.
May 18th, 1910.
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF
JEAN PIERRE CAMUS,
BISHOP OF BELLEY.
JEAN PIERRE CAMUS came of an illustrious, and
much respected family of Auxonne in Burgundy,
in which province it possessed the seigneuries of
Saint Bonnet and Pont-carré.
He was born in Paris, November 3rd, 1584.
His grandfather was for some years Adminis-
trator of the Finances under King Henri III.
Though he had had the management of the public
funds during a period when fraud and dishonesty
were as easy as they were common, he retired from
office without having added a single penny to his
patrimony. On one occasion having received
from Henri III. the gift of a sum of 50,000 crowns,
which had been left by a Jew who had died intes-
tate, and without children, this upright adminis-
trator sent for three merchants who had lost all
their property in a fire, and distributed it among
them.
The father of our Prelate, inheriting this integ-
rity, left an honourable name, but few worldly
goods to his children.
Faithful, and devoted to the interests of his king,
Henri IV., he gave part of his fortune to the
support of the good cause, the triumph of which
he had the happiness of witnessing. He died in
1619.
(1)
2 The Bishop of Belley
The mantle of paternal loyalty and patriotism
undoubtedly descended upon the young J. P.
Camus, for second only to his love for God, and
His Church, was his devotion to France, and its
king.
On his mother’s side, as well as on his father’s,
he was well connected. Her family had given to
France chancellors, secretaries of state, and other
distinguished personages, but noble as were the
races from which he sprang their chief distinction
is derived from the subject of this sketch.
‘* This one branch,” says his panegyrist, ‘‘ bore
more blossoms and more fruit than all the others
together. In John Peter the gentle rivulet of the
Camus’ became a mighty stream, yet one whose
course was peaceful, and which loved to flow
underground, as do certain rivers which seem to
lose themselves in the earth, and only emerge
to precipitate themselves into the waters of the
gean.”
Books and objects of piety were the toys of his
childhood, and his youth was passed in solitude,
and in the practices of the ascetic life. His
physical strength as it increased with his years,
seemed only to serve to assist him in curbing and
restraining a somewhat fiery temperament. His
wish, which at one time was very strong, to be-
come a Carthusian, was not indeed fulfilled, it
being evident from the many impediments put in
its way, that it was not a call from God.
Nevertheless, this desire of self-sacrifice in a
cloistered life was only thwarted in order that he
might sacrifice himself in another way, namely, by
becoming a Bishop, which state, if its functions
are rightly discharged, assuredly demands greater
The Bishop of Belley 3
self-immolation than does that of a monk, and is
indeed a martyrdom that ceases only with life itself.
If he did not submit himself to the Rule of the
Carthusians by entering their Order, he neverthe-
less adopted all its severity, and to the very end
of his life kept his body in the most stern and
rigorous subjection.
This, and his early inclination towards the re-
ligious life, will not a little astonish his detractors,
if any such still exist, for it is surely a convincing
proof that he was not the radical enemy of monas-
ticism they pretend. In his studies he displayed
great brilliancy, being especially distinguished in
theology and canon law, to the study of which he
consecrated four years of his life.
After he had become a Priest his learning, piety,
and eloquence not only established his reputation
as a preacher in the pulpits of Paris, but soon even
crossed the threshold of the Louvre and reached
the ears of Henry IV. That monarch, moved by
the hope of the great services which a prelate might
render to the Church even more than by the affec-
tion which he bore to the Camus family, decided
to propose him for a Bishopric, although he was
but twenty-five, and had not therefore reached the
canonical age for that dignity.
The young Priest was far too humble and also
too deeply imbued with a sense of the awful respon-
sibility of the office of a Bishop to expect, or to
desire to be raised to it. When, however, Pope
Paul V. gave the necessary dispensation, M.
Camus submitted to the will both of the Pontiff
and of the King, and was consecrated Bishop of
Belley by St. Francis de Sales, August 30, 1600.
The fact that the two dioceses of Geneva and
4 The Bishop of Belley
Belley touched one another contributed to further
that close intimacy which was always maintained
between the Bishops, the younger consulting the
elder on all possible occasions, and in all imagin-
able difficulties.
Bishop Camus had already referred his
scruples regarding his youth at the time of his
consecration to his holy director. The latter had,
however, reminded him of the many reasons there
were to justify his submission, viz., the needs of
the diocese, the testimony to his fitness given by
so many persons of distinction and piety, the
judgment of Henry the Great, in fine the command
of His Holiness. In consecrating Mgr. Camus,
St. Francis de Sales seems to have transmitted to
the new Prelate some of the treasures of his own
holy soul. Camus was the only Bishop whom he
ever consecrated, and doubtless this fact increased
the tender affection which Francis bore him. John
Peter was, what he loved to call himself, and what
St. Francis loved to call him, the latter’s only son.
There was between the two holy Prelates a com-
munity of intelligence and of life. ‘* Camus,’’
says Godeau, the preacher of his funeral discourse,
‘fever sat at the feet of St. Francis de Sales, whom
he called his Gamaliel, there to learn from him the
law of God: full as he himself was of the know-
ledge of Divine things.”
We must bear this in mind if we wish to know
what Camus really was, and to appreciate him
properly. He was by nature ardent, impetuous,
and imaginative, eager for truth and goodness,
secretly devoted to the austere practices of St.
Charles Borromeo, but above all fervently desirous
to imitate his model, his beloved spiritual Father,
The Bishop of Belley 5
and therefore anxious to subdue, and to temper all
that was too impetuous, excitable, and hard in him-
self, by striving after the incomparable sweetness
and tenderness which were the distinguishing char-
acteristics of St. Francis de Sales.
Mgr. Camus was endowed with a most marvel-
lous memory, which was indeed invaluable to him
in the great work to which both Bishops devoted
themselves, that of bringing back into the bosom
of the Church those who had become strangers,
and even enemies to her.
His chief defect was that he was over hasty in
judging, and of this he was himself perfectly well
aware. He tells us in the “ Esprit” that on one
occasion when he was bewailing his deficiency to
Francis, the good Prelate only smiled, and told
him to take courage, for that as time went on it
would bring him plenty of judgment, that being
one of the fruits of experience, and of advancing
years.
Whenever Mgr. Camus visited the Bishop of
Geneva, which he did each year in order to make
a retreat of several days under the direction of his
spiritual Father, he was treated with the greatest
honour by him.
St. Francis de Sales gave up his own room to
his guest, and made him preach, and discharge
other episcopal functions, so as to exercise him in
his own presence in these duties of his sublime
ministry.
This was the school in which Camus learnt to
control and master himself, to curb his natural
impetuosity, and to subjugate his own will, and
thus to acquire one, in our opinion, of the most
certain marks of saintliness.
6 The Bishop of Belley
The Bishop of Geneva was not contented with
receiving his only son at Annecy. He often went
over to Belley, and spent several days there in his
company. These visits were to both Prelates a
time of the greatest consolation. Then they
spoke, as it were, heart to heart, of all that they
valued most. Then they encouraged one another
to bear the burden of the episcopate. Then they
consoled each other in the troubles which they met
with in their sacred ministry.
It never cost the younger Bishop anything to
yield obedience to the elder, and no matter how
great, or how trifling was the occasion which called
for the exercise of that virtue, there was never a
moment’s hesitation on the part of the Bishop of
Belley.
The latter, indeed, considered the virtue of
Obedience as the one most calculated to ensure
rapid advance in the spiritual life. He tells us that
One day at table someone having boasted that he
could make an egg stand upright on a plate, a
thing which those present, forgetting Christopher
Columbus, insisted was impossible, the Saint,
as Columbus had done, quietly taking one up
chipped it a little at one end, and so made it stand.
The company all cried out that there was nothing
very great in that trick. ‘‘ No,” repeated the
Saint, ‘‘ but all the same you did not know it.”
We may say the same, adds Camus, of obedi-
ence: it is the true secret of perfection, and yet few
people know it to be so.
From what we have already seen of the character
of John Peter Camus, we may imagine that gentle-
ness was the most difficult for him to copy of the
virtues of St. Francis de Sales; yet steel, though
The Bishop of Belley 7
much stronger than iron, is at the same time far
more readily tempered.
Thus, in his dealings with his neighbour he be-
haved exactly like his model, so much so, that for
anyone who wanted to gain his favour the best plan
was to offend him or do him some injury.
I have spoken of his love of mortification, and a
short extract from the funeral discourse pronounced
over his remains will show to what extent he prac-
tised it.
Godeau says: ‘‘ Our virtuous Bishop up to the
very last years of his life, slept either on a bed of
vine shoots, or on boards, or on straw. This
custom he only abandoned in obedience to his
director, and in doing so I consider that he accom-
plished what was far more difficult and painful
than the mortifications which he had planned for
himself, since the sacrifice of our own will in these
matters is incomparably more disagreeable to us
than the practising of them.”’
This austerity in respect to sleep, of which,
indeed, he required more than others on account
of his excitable temperament, did not suffice to
satisfy his love for penance, without which, he
said, the leading of a Christian and much more of
an episcopal life was impossible. To bring his
body into subjection he constantly made use of
hair-shirts, iron belts, vigils, fasting, and the
discipline, and it was not until his last illness that
he gave up those practices of austerity. He con-
cealed them, however, as carefully as though he
had been ashamed of them, knowing well that such
sacrifices if not offered in secret, partake more of
the spirit of Pharisaism than of the gospel. This
humility, notwithstanding, he was unable to
8 The Bishop of Belley
guard against the pardonable curiosity of his
servants. One of them, quite a young man, who
was his personal attendant during the first years of
his residence at Belley, observing that he wore
round his neck the key of a large cupboard, and
being very anxious to know what it contained,
managed in some way to possess himself of this
key for a few moments, when his master had laid
it aside, and was not in the room.
Unlocking the cupboard he found it full of the
vine shoots on which he was accustomed to sleep.
The bed which everyone saw in his apartment was
the Bishop’s; the one which he hid away was the
penitent’s. The one was for appearance, the other
for piety. He used to put into disorder the
coverings of the bed, so as to give the impression
of having slept in it, while he really slept, or at
least took such repose as was necessary to keep
him alive, on the penitential laths he had hidden.
Having discovered that through his valet the
rumour of his austerity had got abroad, he dis-
missed the young man from his service, giving him
a handsome present, and warning him to be less
Curious in future. But for his failing, however,
we should have lost a great example of the Bishop’s
mortification and humility.
The latter virtue John Peter Camus cultivated
most carefully, and how well he succeeded in this
matter is proved by the composure, and even
gaiety and joyousness, with which he met the
raillery heaped upon his sermons, and writings.
Camus, like the holy Bishop of Geneva, had
throughout his life a special devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, and never failed in his daily
recital of the Rosary. Every evening it was his
The Bishop of Belley 9
habit to read a portion of either The Spiritual Com-
bat, or the Imitation of Jesus Christ; two books
which he recommended to his penitents as next in
usefulness to the gospels.
Following him in his Episcopal career we find
that as the years rolled on his reputation passed
beyond the confines of France, and reached the
Vatican.
Pope Paul V., who knew him intimately, held
him in high esteem, and all the Cardinals honoured
him with their friendship.
Had it not been for his own firm resistance to
every proposal made to him to quit his poor
diocese of Belley, Mgr. Camus would assuredly
have been transferred to some much more im-
portant See.
And here we may again quote the words of his
panegyrist, to indicate the fruits produced by his
zeal in the little corner of the vineyard of the
Divine Master, which had been confided to his
skilful hands.
Godeau says, ‘* The interior sanctity which lhe
strove to acquire for himself by prayer, by reading
holy books, by the mortification of his senses, by
the putting aside of all secular affairs when engaged
in prayer, by humility, patience, and charity,
were the inexhausible source whence flowed all his
external works, and whence they derived all their
purity and vigour.”
As regarded the poor and needy in his diocese,
Mgr. Camus was no less generous in ministering
to their temporal than to their spiritual wants.
He looked upon himself as simply a steward of
the goods of the Church. He, indeed, drew the
revenues of his diocese, but only as rivers draw
10 The Bishop of Belley
their waters from the sea, to pay them back again
to it with usury.
More than once in years of famine he gave all his
corn to the poor, not as Joseph did in Egypt by
depriving them of their liberty, but by depriving
himself of what was necessary for his support, and
treating himself no better than the rest of the poor.
One day he was told that the dearness of wine
was the cause of great distress among working
people. He immediately gave orders that his own
wine should be sold, but after a most curious and
unusual fashion. He would not have any fixed
price set upon it, but only desired that an open
bag should be held at the door of the cellar so that
purchasers might throw in what they pleased. You
may be sure that the bag was not very full and that
the buyers availed themselves to the utmost of his
liberality.
What, however, do you think he did with the
small amount of money which he found in the
bag? Even that he forthwith distributed among
the poor! Surely if anything can approach the
miraculous transformation of water into wine it is
Bishop Camus’ mode of selling it !
After having established in his diocese that order
and peace which are the fruits of the knowledge and
observance of the duties of religion, and having
formed a body of clergy remarkable for their piety
and learning, Mgr. Camus thought he ought to
advance even a Step further.
He felt that it was his duty to have in his
Episcopal city a community of Religious men who
by their example should assist both clergy and
laity in their spiritual life. He did this by build-
The Bishop of Belley 11
ing, at his own expense, in 1620, a Capuchin
Monastery.
For a long time he supplied these Friars with
all that they needed, and finally gave them his own
library, which was both choice and extensive.
He was equally cordial in his relationship with
other Orders, welcoming them gladly to his own
house, and often making retreats in their
Monasteries.
Camus was too intimately connected with Francis
de Sales not to have with him a community of
Spirit.
Knowing how useful the newly-formed Order of
the Visitation would be to the Church, he also
founded at Belley, in 1662, a Convent, to which
he invited some nuns of the New Congregation.
This Institution of the holy Bishop of Geneva was
vigorously attacked from its very beginning. It
was called in derision, the Confraternity of the
Descent from the Cross, because its pious founder
had excluded from this order corporal austerities,
and had adapted all his rules to the reforming of
the interior. The Bishop of Belley declared him-
self champion of this new Institution. Indeed, his
ardent soul was always on fire to proclaim and to
maintain the glory of the Church. At whatever
point She was attacked or threatened there Camus
was to be found armed cap-a-pie to defend her.
As for his own temporal interests, they were
to him matters of absolute indifference when
weighed in the balance of that beloved Church.
His own words, however, speak best on this sub-
ject.
On one occasion, when a Minister of State wrote
to ask him something contrary to those interests,
12 The Bishop of Belley
backing up his request with the most liberal
promises, the Bishop of Belley, after courteously
excusing himself from complying with the request,
wound up his answer to the statesman with these
remarkable words: This is all that can be said to
you by a Bishop who, as regards the past, is under
no obligation to anyone; as regards the present
without interest; and as regards the future has no
pretentions whatever.
We have said that the Bishop of Belley was
indefatigable in labouring for the sanctification
of his people, but this did not in any way prevent
him from bestowing due care upon the interests of
his own soul.
With this object in view he considered that after
long years of toil for his flock he ought to retire
from the world, so as to have more time to devote
to himself. To live in solitude had been the desire
of his youth, as we know it was ever his desire
through all the period of his Episcopate; but his
spiritual guide, the holy Bishop of Geneva, always
succeeded in dissuading him from laying down the
pastoral staff to take refuge in the cloister.
However, after the death of his illustrious friend
and counsellor, this desire returned to Camus with
redoubled force. For seven years, out of respect
for the advice of his dear dead friend, he abstained
from carrying out his purpose, and during that
time of waiting, relaxing nothing in the ardour of
his love for his people and his zeal for the Church,
he devoted himself to the work of repairing and
restoring his Cathedral, which was accomplished in
the year 1627.
When in 1837 this ancient edifice was pulled
down in order to be rebuilt, an inscription was
The Bishop of Belley 13
discovered stating this fact, which is not otherwise
mentioned in any extant writings, probably be-
cause those in which it was recorded were among
the rich archives of the Chapter destroyed by the
fury of the vandals of 1793.
At last, in 1628, Camus finally decided to give
up his Episcopal charge to one who was indeed
worthy of such a dignity.
This was Jean de Passelaigne, Abbot of Notre
Dame de Hambic, Prior of St. Victor of Nevers,
and of La Charité-sur-Loire, Vicar-General of the
Order of Cluny.
Then, having obtained the King’s consent,
Camus retired from the diocese of Belley, which he
had ruled so happily and so well for twenty years,
to the Cistercian Abbey of Annay, there to exercise
in the calm of solitude all those virtues to the
practice of which he said the stir and bustle
inseparable from the episcopal functions had not
allowed him to devote himself. This he did, it
would seem, towards the end of 1628, or the be-
ginning of 1629.
The Abbey of Annay, which the King gave to
him on receiving his resignation of the See of
Belley, was situated: in Normandy, near Caen.
There Camus dwelt for some time, not, however,
leading an idle life, for we find that a great many
of his works were printed at Caen. He also
succeeded in introducing into this Religious
House, and into the neighbouring one of Ardaine,
that reform which it was the desire of his heart
to bring back to all the Monasteries of France.
It was while in Normandy that he made the
acquaintance of Pére Eudes, and between these
two holy Priests the closest friendship sprang up,
14 The Bishop of Belley
founded on a mutual zeal for the salvation of souls.
The Bishop of Belley was not long allowed to en-
joy his quiet retreat at Annay. François de Harlay,
Archbishop of Rouen, being unable at that time,
owing to ill health, to exercise his duties as a
Bishop, felt convinced that Providence had sent
Mgr. Camus into his diocese on purpose that he
might share his labours. His earnest entreaties
prevailed upon the good Bishop to emerge from
his retreat and help to bear the burden which
pressed so heavily upon a sick and failing Prelate.
At Belley he had been accountable to God alone
for the discharge of those duties which he had
for a time laid aside; now at the call of charity he
did not hesitate to take up the burden again to ease
another. He was appointed Vicar-General to the
Archbishop of Rouen, renouncing, like St. Paul,
his liberty in order to become the servant of all
men, and thus gain more souls to Jesus Christ.
Although in this new sphere Camus laboured
with the utmost devotion and untiring energy,
living a life of ascetic severity, fasting, sleeping
on straw, or spending whole nights in prayer,
while his days were given to preaching, confirming,
hearing confessions, visiting the sick, consoling
the afflicted, advising, exhorting, patiently listen-
ing to the crowds who flocked to consult him, yet
he still felt certain that the voice of God called
him to solitude and to a perpetual retreat.
Desiring to spend the rest of his days among
the poor whom he loved so well, he came to Paris,
and took up his abode in the Hospital for Incur-
ables, situated in the Rue de Sèvres. He reserved
for himself out of his patrimony and benefices
only 500 livres, which he paid to the hospital for
The Bishop of Belley 15
his board and lodging, distributing the remainder
among the needy.
In this hospital he passed his time in ministering
to the sick, dressing their wounds, consoling,
and instructing them, and performing for them
all the functions of an ordinary Chaplain.
Even if he went out to visit friends in the
vicinity of Paris, he never returned later than five
o’clock in the evening. Occasionally he preached
in the chapel of the Duke of Orleans before His
Royal Highness, and at such times denounced
vehemently the luxury and indolence of Princes
and courtiers.
There was at this time a diocese in a no less
pitiable condition than was Belley when Mgr.
Camus was, at the King’s desire, placed in charge
of it. This diocese was that of Arras, and on the
28th of May, 1650, he was appointed by Louis
XIV., acting under the advice of the Queen-
Regent, to administer all the affairs of the diocese
until such time as a new Bishop should be
nominated to the vacant See by His Majesty and
our Holy Father the Pope. Into this laborious
task of sowing, ploughing, cultivating a vast
weed-grown, and unpromising field, Camus threw
himself with all his old ardour and energy. He
did so much in a very short time that his name
will long be remembered among the descendants
of those from whom the troubles of the times
snatched him so suddenly, but not before he had
bound them to France while leading them to God
by bands of love stronger than citadels or garrisons.
Political disturbances and the calamities of war
having prevented this indefatigable servant of
God from carrying on his work at Arras, he with-
16 The Bishop of Belley
drew again in the following year to the Hospital
of the Incurables at Paris, there to await better
times, and also doubtless the expected Bull from
the Sovereign Pontiff. However, the great
Rewarder called Camus to Himself before the Pope
had sanctioned his appointment to the Bishopric
of Arras.
But ere we close this slight sketch of the life
of the good Bishop, and speak of its last scenes,
we must say a word about the gigantic literary
labours which occupied him more or less from the
time of his retirement to the Abbey of Annay, in
1628, till his death, in 1652.
It was his great love for the Church which made
him take pen in hand. Varied as were the
subjects on which he wrote, his writings, whether
controversial, dogmatic, devotional or even light
and entertaining, had but one single aim and end—
the instruction of mankind and the glorification
of Catholicism.
If we bear this in mind we shall be ready to
forgive the bitterness and harshness which we may
admit characterised many of his writings. To
reform the Monasteries of France, and to deal a
death blow to the abuses which had crept into
some of them, was the passionate desire of his
heart.
This, and not a personal hatred of monks, as
his enemies have averred, was the moving spring
of his actions in this crusade of the pen. At the
same time we do not deny that his natural im-
petuosity and keen sense of humour made him too
often, in accordance with the bad taste of the day,
present the abuses which he wished to reform,
in so ridiculous and contemptible a light,
The Bishop of Belley 17
as to provoke and irritate his enemies, perhaps
unnecessarily.
Yet, if in this he showed the lack of judgment
which he had years before lamented in himself, can
anyone who knows what those times were, and who
is as jealous for the honour of God as he was,
blame him? There was another evil of the day
which the good Bishop witnessed with grief and
indignation, and set himself zealously to reform.
This was the publishing of romances, or novels,
which, as then written, could only poison the
minds of their readers, inflame their passions, and
weaken their sense of right and wrong. He
pondered the matter, and having made up his
mind that it would be absolutely useless to endea-
vour to hinder their being read, as this would only
increase the obstinacy and perversity of those who
took pleasure in them, he decided on adopting
another method altogether, as he himself said, he
‘‘ tried to make these poor diseased folk, with their
depraved taste and morbid cravings, swallow his
medicine under the disguise of sweetmeats.”’
That is to say, he himself began to write novels
and romances for them; romances which, indeed,
depicted the profligacy of the age, but in such
odious colours as to inspire aversion and contempt.
Vice, if described, was held up to ridicule and
loathing. The interest of the story was so well
kept up as to carry the reader on to the end, and
that end often showed the hero or heroine so
entirely disabused of the world’s enchantment as
to retire voluntarily into convents, in order, by an
absolute devotion of the heart to God, to repair the
injury done to Him, by giving to the creature the
love due to Him alone.
B
18 The Bishop of Belley
These books passed from hand to hand in the
gay world, were read, were enjoyed, and the fruit
gathered from them by the reader was the convic-
tion that God being Himself the Sovereign God,
all other love but that of which He is the object
and the end, is as contrary to the happiness of man
as it is opposed to all the rules of justice.
Let us hear what Camus himself says as to his
motive and conduct in the matter of novel writing.’
“The enterprise on which I have embarked of
wrestling with, or rather contending against those
idle or dangerous books, which cloak themselves
under the title of novels, would surely demand
the hands of Briareus to wield as many pens, and
the strength of Hercules to support such a burden!
But what cannot courage, zeal, charity, and con-
fidence in God accomplish ? ”’
He goes on to say that though he sees all the
difficulties ahead, his courage will not fail, for he
holds his commission from a Saint, the holy
Bishop of Geneva, in whose intercessions, and in
the assistance of the God of Saints, he trusts, and
is confident of victory.
He tells us in several of his works, and especially
in his ‘“ Unknown Traveller,” that it was St.
Francis de Sales who first advised him to use his
pen in this manner, and that for twenty-five years
the Saint had been cogitating and developing this
design in his brain.
In the same little pamphlet Camus points out
the methods he followed as a novel writer.
“Tt consists,” he says, “‘in saying only good
things, dealing only with good subjects, the single
l1 In the preface of his book, entitled “Strange
Occurrences.”
The Bishop of Belley 19
aim of which is to deter from vice, and to lead on
to-virtue.”
He was an extraordinarily prolific and rapid
writer, scarcely ever correcting or polishing up
anything that he had put on paper. This was a
defect, but it was the natural outcome of his tem-
perament, which was a curious combination of
lightness and solidity, gaiety and severity.
Few people really understood him. He was
often taken for a mere man of the world, when in
truth he was one of the stoutest champions of
the Church, and in his inner life, grave and ascetic,
macerating his flesh like a monk of the desert. He
wrote in all about 200 volumes, 50 of these being
romances.
In the latter, which drew down upon him such
storms of bitter invective, owing to his freedom of
language in treating of the vices against which he
was warning his readers, we do not pretend to
admire his work, but must remind readers that his
style was that of the age in which he lived, and
that Camus was essentially a Parisian. We have
said that he wrote at least fifty novels; we may add
that each was cleverer than that which had preceded
it. Forgotten now, they were at the time of their
appearance eagerly devoured, and it is morally
impossible but that some good should have resulted
from their production.
And now old age came upon the busy writer—old
age, but not the feebleness of old age, nor its
privileged inaction. As he advanced in years he
seemed to increase in zeal and diligence, and it was
not till suddenly stricken down by a mortal malady
that his labours ceased.
Then on his death-bed in a quiet corner of the
20 The Bishop of Belley
Hospital for Incurables in humility, patience, and
a marvellous silence, only opening his lips to
speak at the desire of his confessor, calm and
peaceful, his eyes fixed upon the crucifix which he
held in his hands, Jean Pierre Camus gave up his
soul to God. This was on the 25th of April, 1652.
He was 67 years old.
He had in his will forbidden any pomp or display
at his funeral, and his wishes were strictly obeyed.
Some time after his death a stone was placed by
the Administrators of the Hospital over the tomb
of the good Bishop, who had been so great a bene-
factor to that Institution, and who rests beneath
the nave of its Church in the Rue de Sévres.
When he felt the first approach of illness, about
six weeks before his death, he made his will, in
which he left the greater part of his money to the
Hospital, founding in it four beds for the Incur-
ables of Belley.
And now our work is done. . . . The object has
been to make John Peter Camus known as he really
was, and to cleanse his memory from the stains cast
upon it by the jarring passions of his contem-
poraries.
If we have succeeded in this the reader will
recognise in him a pious Bishop, armed with the
scourge of penance, an indefatigable writer in the
defence of good morals, of religion, and of the
Church—a reformer, and not an enemy of the
Monastic Orders; finally a Prelate, who laboured
all his life to copy the Holy Bishop of Geneva,
whom he ever regarded as his father, his guide,
and his oracle.
One word more. Those pious persons who wish
to know better this true disciple of the Bishop of
The Bishop of Belley 21
Geneva have nothing to do but to read the Spirit
of Saint Francis de Sales. There they will see the
Bishop of Belley as he really was. There they can
admire his ardent piety, the candour of his soul, the
fervour of his faith and charity; in a word, all
that rich store of virtues which he acquired in the
school of that great master of the spiritual life who
was for fourteen years his Director.
THE FRENCH PUBLISHER TO
THE READER, 1639.
Since the holy death of Blessed Francis de
Sales, Prince and Bishop of Geneva, which took
place on December 28th, the Feast of the Holy
Innocents, in the year 1622, many writers have
taken up the pen to give the public the knowledge
of the pious life and virtuous conversation of that
holy Prelate, whom some have very fitly called the
St. Charles of France.
The writer, however, with whom we are most
concerned is Monseigneur Jean Pierre Camus,
Bishop of Belley, whose work we are now intro-
ducing to our readers. After the death of Blessed
Francis this faithful friend and devoted disciple
was entreated, urged, conjured, in season and out
of season, by an infinity of persons, to employ
the literary faculty given to him by God in com-
municating to the world the many rare things
which he had had the opportunity of observing in
the life and conversation of Blessed Francis, under
whose direction and discipline he had been for
fourteen years.
M. Camus constantly excused himself under the
plea that many had already taken the work in hand,
and that he did not care to put his sickle into
another man’s crop, nor to make books by simply
transcribing those of others, as is done by many
writers of our day. At last, however, he allowed
himself to be persuaded by some members of the
Order of the Visitation, founded by the holy
Bishop, to write the life, or, more properly
22
The French Preface of 1639 23
speaking, to delineate the spirit of his beloved
Master.
Having promised to do this, he considered that
he had, at least partially, fulfilled his promise by
publishing some pious Treatises conformable to
the spirit of the holy Prelate. It was, however,
afterwards thought better to gather up, and, as it
were, glean from M. Camus’ own sermons, ex-
hortations, conferences, conversations, books, and
letters, that Spirit of Blessed Francis which he had
imbibed, in common with all the holy Bishop’s
disciples and spiritual children.
To make this collection was not difficult, because
there was scarcely a sermon, conference, or
Spiritual lesson given by him in which he did not
say something about the Saint, so deeply imbued
was he with his instructions.
One of the most intimate and familiar friends of
the Bishop of Belley, having given his attention
to the matter, now lays before you as the result,
this book to which he has given the title: The Spirit
of Blessed Francis de Sales, represented in his
most remarkable words and actions. This holy
Bishop was mighty in works and in words; he was
not one of those who say much that is good but
who do not practise it. To sav and to do was with
him the same thing, or rather, his doing surpassed
his saying. .. .
In this collection offered to you, there is but
little formal arrangement, the component parts
were gathered up as they fell from the lips or the
pen of Monseigneur Camus. It is a piece of
mosaic work, a bouquet of various flowers, a salad
of divers herbs, a banquet of many dishes, an
orchard of different fruits, where each one can
take what best suits his taste.
Note.—In this translation an endeavour has been
made to group together the sections treating of the
same subject. These are scattered, without order,
through the three volumes of the French edition.
THE SPIRIT OF
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES
Upon PERFECT VIRTUE.
Blessed Francis de Sales thought very little of
any virtue unless it was animated by charity;
following in this the teaching of St. Paul, who
declares that without charity the greatest virtues are
as nothing. Thus, even the faith which works
miracles, the almsgiving which leads a man to sell
all his goods to feed the poor, the spirit of martyr-
dom which impels him to give his body to be
burned, all, if without charity, are nothing.*
That you may clearly understand the distinction
which he drew between the natural excellence of
certain virtues, and the supernatural perfection
which they acquire by the infusion of charity, I
will give you his exact words on the subject, as
they are to be found in his Treatise on the Love of
God.
He says: ‘‘ The light of the sun falls equally on
the violet and the rose, yet will never render the
former as fair as the latter, or make a daisy as
lovely as a lily. If, however, the sun should shine
very clearly upon the violet, and very mistily and
faintly upon the rose, then without doubt it would
make the violet more fair to see than the rose.
*1 Cor. xiii. 1—3.
(25)
26 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
So, Theotimus, if with equal charity one should
suffer death by martyrdom, and another suffer only
hunger by fasting, who does not see that the value
of this fasting will not, on that account, be equal
to that of martyrdom? No, for who would dare
to affirm that martrydom is not more excellent in
itself than fasting. . . . Still, it is true that if love
be ardent, powerful, and excellent, in a heart, it
will also more enrich and perfect all the virtuous
works which may proceed from it. One may suffer
death and fire for God, without charity, as St. Paul
supposes,* and as I explain elsewhere. Still more
then may one suffer them with little charity. Now,
I say, Theotimus, that it may come to pass that a
very small virtue may be of greater value
in a soul where divine love fervently reigns, than
martyrdom itself in a soul where love is languish-
ing, feeble, and dull. Thus, the least virtues of
our Blessed Lady of St. John, and of other great
Saints, were of more worth before God than the
most exalted perfections of the rest of His
servants.” t
BLESSED FRANCIS’ ESTIMATE OF VARIOUS
VIRTUES.
1°. He preferred those virtues the practice of
which is comparatively frequent, common, and
ordinary, to others which we may be called upon
to exercise On rare occasions.
2°. He considered, as we have seen, that the
degree of the supernatural in any virtue could not
be decided by the greatness or smallness of the
*: Cor. xiii. 2
t Bk. xi. chap. v.
Blessed Francis Estimate of Various Virtues 27
external act, since an act in itself altogether trivial,
may be performed with much grace and charity,
while a very brilliant and dazzling good work may
be animated by but a very feeble spark of love
of God, the intensity of which is, after all, the only
rule by which to ascertain its true value in His
sight.
3°. The more universal a virtue, the more, he
said, it is to be preferred before all others, charity
only excepted. For instance, he valued prayer as
the light which illumines all other virtues;
devotion, as consecrating all our actions to God;
humility, which makes us set but little value on
ourselves and on our doings; meekness, which
yields to all; patience, which includes everything
besides. He valued these, I say, more than
magnanimity, or liberality, because such virtues
can be more rarely practised and they affect fewer
subjects.
4°. He was always on his guard against showy
virtues, which of their very nature encourage vain-
glory, the bane of all good works.
5°. He blamed those who measure virtues by the
standard set up by the world, who prefer temporal
to spiritual alms; haircloth, fasting, and corporal
austerities to sweetness, modesty, and the mortifica-
tion of the heart; virtues by far the more excellent.
6°. He greatly condemned those who select the
virtues most agreeable to their taste, and practise
these alone, quite regardless of those which are
specially adapted to their state of life. These
people, indeed, serve God, but after a way of their
own, not according to His will: a by no means
uncommon mistake, which leads many, otherwise
devout-minded, far out of the right path.
28 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE LESSER VIRTUES.
He had a special affection for certain virtues
which are passed over by some as trivial and
insignificant. ‘“‘ Everyone,” he used to say, ‘‘ is
eager to possess those brilliant, almost dazzling
virtues which cluster round the summit of the
Cross, so that they can be seen from afar and
admired, but very few are anxious to gather those
which, like wild thyme, grow at the foot of that
Tree of Life and under its shade. Yet these are
often the most hardy, and give out the sweetest
perfume, being watered with the precious Blood
of the Saviour, whose first lesson to His disciples
was: Learn of Me because I am meek and
humble of heart.*
It does not belong to every one to practise the
sublime virtues of fortitude, magnanimity, endur-
ance unto death, patience, constancy, and courage.
The occasions of exercising these are rare, yet all
aspire to them because they are brilliant and their
names high sounding. Very often, too, people
fancy that they are able, even now, to practise them.
They inflate their courage with the vain opinion
they have of themselves, but when put to the trial
fail pitiably. They are like those children of
Ephrem, who distinguished themselves wonder-
fully by, in the time of peace, hitting the target
with every arrow, but in the battle were the first
to fly before the enemy. Better had their skill been
less and their courage greater.
Opportunities of acquiring offices, benefices,
inheritances, large sums of money, are not to be
met with every day, but at any moment we may
*Matt. xi. 20.
Upon the Lesser Virtues 29
earn farthings and halfpence. By trading well on
these small profits, many have in course of time
grown rich. We should become spiritually wealthy
and lay up for ourselves much treasure in Heaven
did we employ in the service of the holy love of
God, the small opportunities which are to be met
with at every hour of our lives.
It is not enough to practise great virtues; they
must be practised with great charity, for that it is
which in the sight of God forms the basis of and
gives weight and value to all good works. An act
of lesser virtue (for all virtues are not of equal
importance) done out of great love to God is far
more excellent than a rarer and grander one
done with less love.
‘* Look at this good soul, she gives a cup of cold
water to the thirsty with such holy love that it is
changed into the water of life, life eternal. The
Gospel which makes light of the weightiest sums
cast into the treasury, reckons of the highest value
two mites offered out of a great and fervent love.’’*
‘These little homely virtues! How seldom is
mention made of them! How lightly they are
esteemed! Kindly concessions to the exacting
temper of our neighbour, gentle tolerance of his
imperfections, loving endurance of cross looks,
peevish gestures, cheerfulness under contempt and
small injustices, endurance of affronts, patience
with importunity, doing menial actions which our
social position impels us to regard as beneath us;
replying amiably to some one who has given us an
undeserved and sharp reproof, falling down and
then bearing good humouredly the being laughed
at, accepting with gentleness the refusal of a kind-
* Cf. Treatise on the Love of God. Bk. iii. c. ii.
80 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
ness, receiving a favour graciously, humbling our-
selves before our equals and inferiors, keeping on
kindly and considerate terms with our servants.
How trivial and poor all this appears to those who
have their hearts lifted up with proud aspirations.
We want, they seem to say, no virtues but such as
go clad in purple, and to be borne by fair winds
and spreading sails towards high reputation. They
forget that those who please men are not the ser-
vants of God, and that the friendship of the world
and its applause are worth nothing and less than
nothing in His sight.’’*
UPON INCREASE OF FAITH.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! Lord, increase
the Faith in us! And how is this increase of Faith
to be brought about? In the same way, assuredly,
as the strength of the palm tree grows with the
load it has to bear, or as the vine profits by being
pruned.
A stoic philosopher remarked very truly that
virtue languishes when it has nothing to overcome.
What does a man know until he is tempted?
Our Blessed Father! when visiting the bailiwick
of Gex, which adjoins the city of Geneva, in order
to re-establish the Catholic religion in some
parishes, declared that his Faith gained new
vigour through his intercourse with the heretics
of those parts, who were sitting in darkness and
in the shadow of death.
* Cf. The Devout Life. Part iii. c. i., ii., and vi.
1St. Francis de Sales was spoken of as Our Blessed
Father, not only by the Visitation Nuns, but in the whole
neighbourhood of Annecy.
Upon Increase of Farth 31
He expresses his feelings on this subject in one
of his letters: ‘“ Alas! in this place I see poor
wandering sheep all around me; I approach them
and marvel at their evident and palpable blindness.
O my God! the beauty of our holy Faith then
appears by comparison so entrancing that I would
die for love of it, and I feel that I ought to lock
up the precious gift which God has given me in
the innermost recesses of a heart all perfumed with
devotion. My dearest daughter, I thank the
sovereign Light which shed its rays so mercifully
into this heart of mine, that the more I go among
those who are deprived of Faith, the more clearly
and vividly I see its magnificence and its inexpres-
sible, yet most desirable, sweetness.’’*
In order to make great progress in the spirit of
Faith, which is that of Christian perfection, Blessed
Francis was not satisfied with simple assent to all
those truths which are divinely revealed, or with
submission to the will of God as taught in them,
he wanted more than this. It was his desire that
we should be actuated in all our dealings by the
spirit of Faith, as far at least as that is possible,
so as to arrive at last at that summit of perfect
charity which the Apostle calls the more excellent
way, and of which he says that he who is joined
to the Lord is one spirit.
Upon TEMPTATIONS AGAINST FAITH.
He who is not tempted what knows he? says
Holy Scripture. God is faithful, and will not
permit us to be tempted beyond our strength; nay,
if we are faithful to Him, He enables us to profit
*Cf. The Depositions of St. Chantal. Point 24th.
32 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
by our tribulation. He not only helps us, but He
makes us find our help in the tribulation itself, in
which, thinking we were perishing, we cried out to
Him to save us.
Those who imagine themselves to be in danger
of losing the Faith, when the temptations suggested
to them by the enemy against this virtue, harass
and distress them, understand very little of the
nature of temptations. For, besides that tempta-
tion cannot harm us, as long as it is displeasing to
us, which is the teaching of one of the early Fathers,
it actually, in such case, produces an absolutely
contrary effect to what we fear, and to the aim of our
adversary, the devil. For just as the palm tree
takes deeper and stronger root, the more it is tossed
and shaken by the winds and storms, so the more
we are tossed by temptation, the more firmly are we
settled in that virtue which the temptation was striv-
ing to overthrow.
As we see from the lives of the Saints, the most
chaste are those who oppose the greatest resistance
to the goad of sensuality, and the most patient are
those who struggle the most earnestly against im-
patience. It is for this reason that Holy Scripture
says: Happy is he who suffers temptation, since,
after his trial, the crown of life awaits him.*
In this way the more violent are the temptations
against Faith with which a soul is troubled, the
more deeply does that virtue bury itself in the heart,
and is there held all the more tightly and closely,
because of our fear lest it escape.
Blessed Francis provides us in one of his letters
with three excellent means of resisting and over-
coming temptations against Faith. The first, is to
*¥James i. 12.
Upon Temptations Against Faith 33
despise all the suggestions of the Evil One. They
are outside and before our heart rather than within
it, for there peace maintains its hold, though in
great bitterness. This so exasperates our proud
enemy, who is king over all the children of pride,
that, seeing himself disdained, he withdraws.
The second is not to fight against this tempta-
tion by contrary acts of the understanding, but by
those of the will, darting forth a thousand protesta-
tions of fidelity to the truths which God reveals to
us by His Church. These acts of Faith, super-
natural as they are, soon reduce to ashes all the
engines and machinations of the enemy.
Our Saint gives us his third means, the use of
the discipline, saying that this bodily suffering
Serves as a diversion to trouble of mind, and adds
that the devil, seeing the flesh, which is his parti-
san and confederate, thus maltreated, is terrified
and flies away. This is to act like that King of
Moab, who brought about the raising of the siege
of his city, by sacrificing his son on the walls, in
the sight of his enemies, so that, panic-stricken,
with horror at a sight so appalling, they took at
once to flight.
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
When the tempter sees that our heart is so firmly
established in grace that we flee from sin as from a
serpent, and that its very shadow, which is tempta-
tion, frightens us, he contents himself with dis-
quieting us, seeing that he cannot make us yield to
his will.
In order to effect this, he stirs up a heap of
trivial temptations, which he throws like dust into
C
384 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
our eyes, so as to make us unhappy, and to render
the path of virtue less pleasant to us.
We must take up shield and sword to arm our-
selves against great temptations; but there are
many trivial and ordinary ones which are better
driven away by contempt than by any other
means.
We arm ourselves against wolves and bears; but
who would condescend to do so against the swarms
of flies which torment us in hot weather? Our
Blessed Father, writing to one who was sorrowful
and disquieted at finding herself assailed by temp-
tations against Faith, though these were most hate-
ful and tormenting to her, expresses himself thus:
‘“ Your temptations against Faith have come back
again, even though you never troubled yourself to
answer them. They importune you again, but still
you do not answer.
“ Well, my daughter, all this is as it should be:
but you think too much about them; you fear them
too much; you dread them too much. Were it not
for that, they would do you no harm. You are too
sensitive to temptations. You love the Faith, and
would not willingly suffer a single thought con-
trary to it to enter your mind; but the moment one
so much as occurs to you you are saddened and
troubled by it.
“ You are too jealous of your purity of Faith.
You fancy that everything that teuches it must
taint it.
“ No, my daughter, let the wind blow, and do
not think that the rustling of the leaves is the clash
of arms. A little while ago I was standing near
some beehives, and some of the bees settled on my
face. I wanted to brush them off with my hand.
Upon Confidence in God 85
‘No,’ said a peasant to me, ‘do not be afraid, and
do not touch them, then they will not sting you at
all; but if you touch them they will half devour
you.’ I took his advice, and not one stung me.
‘* Believe me, if you do not fear these tempta-
tions, they will not harm you; pass on and pay no
heed to them.’’
Upon CONFIDENCE IN GOD.
On this subject I must relate a charming little
instance of our Blessed Father’s perfect confidence
in God, of which he told me once with his accus-
tomed simplicity, to the great consolation of my
soul, and one which I was delighted afterwards to
find related in a letter addressed to one of his most
intimate friends.
‘“ Yesterday,” he said, ‘‘ wishing to pay a visit
to the Archbishop of Vienne, I went on the lake
in a little boat, and felt very happy in the thought
that my sole protection, besides a thin plank, was
Divine Providence. The wind was high, and I
was glad, too, to feel entirely under the command of
the pilot, who made us all sit perfectly still; and,
indeed, I had no wish to stir! Do not, however,
my daughter, take these words of mine as proofs
of my being very holy. No, they are only little
imaginary virtues which I amuse myself by fancy-
ing I possess. When it comes to real earnest, I am
by no means so brave.”
The simplicity of the Saint’s thoughts when on
the water, and of his way of mentioning them,
shows how childlike was his trust in God. It re-
minds one of the happiness with which St. John
leaned upon the Saviour’s breast. A saying, too,
36 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
of Saint Teresa which I have read in her life comes
to my mind. She declared she was never more
absolutely content than when she found herself in
some peril which obliged her to have recourse to
God; because then it seemed to her that she was
clinging more closely to His holy presence, and
saying to Him, as did Jacob to the Angel, that she
would not let Him go until He had blessed her.
Our MISERY APPEALS TO GOD’s MERCY.
To a soul overwhelmed by the consideration of
its infidelities and miseries he wrote these words of
marvellous consolation.
‘“ Your miseries and infirmities ought not to
astonish you. God has seen many and many a one
as wretched as you, and His mercy never turns
away the unhappy. On the contrary, by means of
their wretchedness, He seeks to do them good, mak-
ing their abjection the foundation of the throne of
His glory. As Job’s patience was enthroned on a
dung-hill, so God’s mercy is raised upon the
wretchedness of man; take away man’s misery, and
what becomes of God’s mercy ? ”’
Elsewhere he writes: ‘‘ What does our Lord love
to do with His gift of eternal life, but to bestow it
on souls that are poor, feeble, and of little account
in their own eyes? Yes, indeed, dearly beloved
children, we must hope, and that with great con-
fidence, to live throughout a happy eternity. The
greater our misery the greater should be our con-
fidence.” These, indeed, are his very words in his
second conference.
Again in one of his letters he says: ‘* Why!
What would this good and all-merciful God do with
Upon Self-Distrust 37
His mercy; this God, whom we ought so worthily
to honour for His goodness? What, I say, would
He do with it if He did not share it with us, miser-
able as we are? If our wants and imperfections did
not serve as a stage for the display of His graces
and favours, what use would He make of this holy
and infinite perfection ?”’
This is the lesson left us by our Blessed Father,
and we ought, indeed, to hope with that lively hope
animated by love, without which none can be saved.
And this lively hope, what is it, but a firm and un-
wavering confidence that we shall, through God’s
grace and God’s mercy, attain to the joy of heaven,
which, being infinite, is boundless and unmeasur-
able.
Upon SeEtF-DISTRUST.
Distrust of self and confidence in God are the
two mystic wings of the dove; that is to say, of the
soul which, having learnt to be simple, takes its
flight and rests in God, the great and sovereign
object of its love, of its flight, and of its repose.
The Spiritual Combat, which is an excellent
epitome of the science of salvation and of heavenly
teaching, makes these two things, distrust of selt
and confidence in God, to be, as it were, the intro-
duction to true wisdom: they are, the author tells
us, the two feet on which we walk towards it, the
two arms with which we embrace it, and the two
eyes with which we perceive it.
In proportion to the growth of one of these two
in us is the increase of the other; the greater or the
less the degree of our self-distrust, the greater or
the less the degree of our confidence in God.
38 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
But whence springs this salutary distrust of self?
From the knowledge of our own misery and vile-
ness, Of our weakness and impotence, of our malice
and levity. And whence proceeds confidence in
God? From the knowledge which faith gives us of
His infinite goodness, and from our assurance that
He is rich in mercy to all those who call upon
Him.
If distrust and confidence seem incompatible with
one another, listen to what our Blessed Father says
on the subject: ‘‘ Not only can the soul which
knows her misery have great confidence in God,
but unless she has such knowledge, it is impossible
for her to have true confidence in Him; for it is this
very knowledge and confession of our misery which
brings us to God. Thus, all the great Saints, Job,
David, and the rest, began every prayer with the
confession of their own misery, and unworthiness.
It is a very good thing to acknowledge ourselves
to be poor, vile, abject, and unworthy to appear in
the presence of God. That saying so celebrated
among the ancients: Know thyself, even though it
may be understood as referring to the knowledge of
the greatness and excellence of the soul, which ought
not to be debased or profaned by things unworthy
of its nobility, may also be taken as referring to the
knowledge of our personal unworthiness, imperfec-
tion, and misery. Now the greater our knowledge
of our own misery the more profound will be our
confidence in the goodness and mercy of God; for
between mercy and misery there is so close a con-
nection that the one cannot be exercised without the
other. If God had not created man, He would still,
indeed, have been perfect in goodness; but He
would not have been actually merciful, since mercy
Upon Self- Distrust 39
can only be exercised towards the miserable. You
see, then, that the more miserable we know our-
selves to be the more occasion we have to confide
in God, since we have nothing in ourselves in which
we can trust.”
He goes on to say: “‘ It is a very good thing to
mistrust ourselves, but at the same time how will
that avail us, unless we put our whole confidence in
God, and wait for His mercy? It is right that our
daily faults and infidelities should cause us self-
reproach when we would appear before our Lord;
and we read of great souls, like St. Catherine of
Siena and St. Teresa, who, when they had been
betrayed into some fault, were overwhelmed with
confusion. Again, it is reasonable that, having
offended God, we should out of humility and a feel-
ing of confusion, hold ourselves a little in the back-
ground. When we have offended even an earthly
friend, we feel ashamed to meet him. Neverthe-
less, it is quite certain that we must not remain for
long at a distance, for the virtues of humility, ab-
jection, and confusion are intermediate virtues, or
steps by which the soul ascends to union with her
God.
It would be no great gain to accept our nothing-
ness as a fact and to strip ourselves of self (which
is done by acts of self-humiliation) if the result of
this were not the total surrender of ourselves to
God. St. Paul teaches us this, when he says:
Strip yourselves of the old man and put on the
new.” For we must not remain unclothed; but
clothe ourselves with God.”
Further on our Saint says: “‘ I ever say that the
throne of God’s mercy is our misery, therefore the
© Col. iii. 9.
40 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
greater our misery the greater should be our con-
fidence.’ *
As regards the foundation of our confidence in
God, he says in the same conference: ‘‘ You wish
further to know what foundation our confidence
ought to have. Know, then, that it must be
grounded on the infinite goodness of God, and on
the merits of the Death and Passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ with this condition on our part that
we should preserve and recognise in ourselves an
entire and firm resolution to belong wholly to God,
and to abandon ourselves in all things and without
any reserve to His Providence.’’
He adds that, in order to belong wholly to God,
it is not necessary to feel this resolution, because
feeling resides chiefly in the lower faculties of the
soul; but we must recognise it in the higher part
of the soul, that purer and more serene region where
even in spite of our feelings we fail not to serve God
in spirit and in truth.
UPON THE JUSTICE AND MERcy OF GOD.
You ask me a question which would be hard for
me to answer had I not the mind of our Blessed
Father to guide and assist me in the matter.
You say: Whence comes it that Almighty God
treated the rebel Angels with so much severity,
showing them no mercy whatever, and providing
for them no remedy to enable them to rise again
after their fall; whereas to men He is so indulgent,
patient towards their malice, waiting for them to
repent, long suffering, and magnificent in His
mercy, bestowing on them the copious Redemption
of the Saviour ?
* Conference ii.
Upon the Justice and Mercy of God 41
Well, He tells us in his Treatise on the Love of
God* that: ‘‘ The angelic nature could only commit
sin from positive malice, without temptation or
motive to excuse, even partially. Nevertheless, the
far greater part of the Angels remained constant
in the service of their Saviour. Therefore God,
who had so amply glorified His mercy in the work
of the creation of the Angels, would also magnify
His justice; and in His righteous indignation
resolved for ever to abandon that accursed band of
traitors, who in their rebellion had so villainously
abandoned Him.”
On man, however, He took pity for several
reasons. First, because the tempter by his cun-
ning had deceived our first father, Adam; secondly,
because the spirit of man is encompassed by flesh
and consequently by infirmity; thirdly, because his
Spirit, enclosed as it is in an earthly body, is frail
as the vessel which enshrines it, easily over-
balanced by every breath of wind, and unable to
right itself again; fourthly, because the temptation
in the Garden of Eden was great and over-master-
ing; fifthly, because He had compassion on the pos-
terity of Adam, which otherwise would have
perished with him; but the sixth, and principal
cause was this: Almighty God having resolved to .
take on Himself our human nature in order to unite
it to the Divine Person of the Word, He willed to
favour very specially this nature for the sake of
that hypostatic union, which was to be the master-
piece of all the communications of Almighty God
to His creatures.
Do not, however, imagine that God so willed to
magnify His mercy in the redemption of man that
*DeE. ii. ciy.
42 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
He forgot the claims of His justice. No, truly;
for no severity can equal that which He displayed
in the sufferings of His Son, on whose sacred
Head having laid the iniquities of us all, He poured
out a vengeance commensurate with His Divine
wrath.
If, then, we weigh the severity displayed by God
towards the rebel Angels against that with which
He treated His Divine Son when redeeming man-
kind, we shall find His justice more abundantly
satisfied in the atonement made by the One than
in the rigorous punishment of the others. In fine
here, as always, His mercy overrides His judg-
ments, inasmuch as the fallen Angels are punished
far less than they deserve, and the faithful are re-
warded far beyond their merits.
WAITING UPON GOD.
On this subject of waiting upon God I remem-
ber hearing from Blessed Francis two wonderful
explanations. You, my dear sisters, will, I am sure,
be glad to have them, and will find them of great
use, seeing that your life, nailed as it is with Jesus
Christ to the Cross, must be one of great long-
suffering.
He thus interpreted that verse of the Psalmist:
With expectation have I waited on the Lord, and
He was attentive to me.*
‘* To wait, waiting,” he said, “‘ is not to fret our-
selves while we are waiting. For there are some
who in waiting do not wait, but are troubled and
impatient.”
Those who have to wait soon get weary, and from
*Psalm xxxix. I
Waating upon God 43
weariness springs that disturbance of mind so com-
mon amongst them. Hence the inspired saying
that Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul.* Of
all kinds of patience there is none more fitting to
tedious waiting than longanimity. Strength is
developed in dangers; patience drives away the
sadness caused by suffering; constancy avails for
the bearing of great evils; perseverance for the
carrying out a good work to its completion; but
longanimity has to do with sufferings which are
painful because they are long enduring.
Such pains are tedious, but not often violent, for
violent sufferings are, asa rule, not lasting; either
they pass away, or he on whom they are inflicted,
being unable to bear them, is set free by death. To
wait, indeed, for deliverance from evils quietly, but
without any anguish or irritation, at least in the
Superior part of the soul, is to wait, waiting.
Happy are those who wait in this manner, for their
hope shall not be confounded. Of them the
Psalmist says that God will remember them, that
He will grant their prayers, and that He will de-
liver them from the pit of misery.+ Those who act
otherwise, and who in their adversity give them-
selves up to impatience, only aggravate their yoke,
instead of lightening it.
They are like the bird which beats its wings
against the wrist or perch on which it is poised, but
cannot get free from its chain.
Wise Christians making a virtue of necessity and
wishing what God wishes, make that which is neces-
sary voluntary, and turn their suffering to their
eternal advantage.
2Psalm ĝiii. 12. {Psalm xxxix. 3.
44 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HOLy
DESIRE OF REWARD AND A MERCENARY SPIRIT.
I am asked if there is not something of a mer-
cenary spirit in these words of our Blessed Father :
‘“Oh, how greatly to be loved is the eternity of
Heaven, and how contemptible are the fleeting
moments of earth! Aspire continually to this eter-
nity, and despise heartily this decaying world.”
You will observe, if you please, that there is a
great deal of difference between a proper desire of
reward and a mercenary habit of mind. The
proper desire of recompense is one which looks prin-
cipally to the glory of God, and to that glory refers
its own reward. A habit of mind which, according
to the teaching of the Holy Council of Trent, is
most excellent.*
But a mercenary habit of mind is shown when
we stop short voluntarily, deliberately, and mali-
ciously at our own self-interest, neglecting and
putting on one side the interests of God, and when
we look forward only to the honours, satisfactions,
and delights given to the faithful, and exclude, as
it were, the tribute of glory and homage which they
render for them to God.
As regards these words of our Blessed Father’s,
I am perfectly certain that, whatever they may at
first sight seem to mean, they are assuredly the
expression of thoughts, utterly unselfish, and
totally devoid of the spirit of self-seeking. He had
written just before: ‘‘ Take good heed not to come
to the feast of the Holy Cross, which is a million
times fuller of exquisite pleasures than any wedding
feast, without having on the white robe, spotless,
*De Justificat, cap. 12.
Holy Desire of Reward, &c. 45
and pure from all intentions save that of Beene
the Lamb.”
Again, I should like to read to you an extract
from one of his letters, in which you will see that
he knew how to distinguish, even in Paradise, our
interests from those of God: So pure and pene-
trating was his sight that it resembled that single
eye of which the Gospel speaks,* which fills us with
light and discernment in things spiritual and
divine. He speaks thus in his letter: “‘ I have not
been able to think of anything this morning save of
the eternity of blessings which awaits us. And yet
all appear to me as little or nothing beside that
unchanging and ever-present love of the great God,
which reigns continually in Heaven. For truly I
think that the joys of Paradise would be possible,
in the midst of all the pains of hell, if the love of
God could be there. And if hell-fire were a fire of
love, it seems to me that its torments would be the
most desirable of good things. All the delights of
Heaven are in my eyes a mere nothing compared
with this triumphant love. Truly, we must either
die or love God. I desire that my heart should
either be torn from my body or that if it remains
with me it should hold nothing but this holy love.
Ah! We must truly give our hearts up to our im-
mortal King, and thus being closely united to Him,
live solely for Him. Let us die to ourselves and to
all that depends on ourselves. It seems to me that
we ought to live only for God. The very thought
of this fills my heart once more with courage and
fervour. Afterall, that our Lord is our Lord is the
one thing in the world that really concerns us.”’
Again, in his Theotimus,f he says:
* Maitt vi. 22. Tek. ži. 13.
46 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
“ The supreme motive of our actions, which is
that of heavenly love, has this sovereign property,
that being most pure, it makes the actions which
proceed from it most pure; so that the Angels and
Saints of Heaven love absolutely nothing for any
other end whatever than that of the love of the
Divine goodness, and from the motive of desiring
to please God. They all, indeed, love one another
most ardently; they also love us, they love the vir-
tues, but all this only to please God. They follow
and practise virtues, not inasmuch as these virtues
are fair and attractive to them; but inasmuch as they
are agreeable to God. They love their own felicity,
not because it is theirs, but because it pleases God.
Yea, they love the very love with which they love
God, not because it is in them, but because it tends
to God; not because they have and possess it, but
because God gives it to them, and takes His good
pleasure in it.”
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.
There are some gloomy minds which imagine
that when the motive of charity and disinterested
love is insisted upon all other motives are thereby
depreciated, and that it is wished to do away with
them. But does he who praises one Saint blame
the others? If we extol the Seraphim, do we on
that account despise all the lower orders of Angels?
Does the man who considers gold more precious
than silver say that silver is nothing at all? Are
we insulting the stars when we admire and praise
the sun? And do we despise marriage because we
put celibacy above it ?
It is true that, as the Apostle says, charity is the
Continuation of the Same Subject 47
greatest of all virtues, without which the others
have neither life nor soul; but that does not pre-
vent these others from being virtues, and most
desirable as good habits. In doing virtuous actions
the motive of charity is, indeed, the king of all
motives; but blessed also are all those inferior
motives which are subject to it. We may truly say
of them what the Queen of Sheba said of the cour-
tiers of Solomon: Happy are thy men who always
stand before thee and hear thy wisdom.*
Nay, even servile and mercenary motives,
although interested, may yet be good, provided
they have nothing in them that cannot be referred to
God. They are good in those who have not
charity, preparing them for the reception of justify-
ing grace. They are also good in the regenerate,
and are compatible with charity, like servants and
Slaves in the service and households of the great.
For it is right, however regenerate we may be, to
abstain from sin, not only for fear of displeasing
God, but also for fear of losing our souls. The
Council of Trent tells us that we are not doing ill
when we perform good works primarily in order to
glorify God; and also, as an accessory, with a view
to the eternal reward which God promises to those
who shall do such in His love and for His love.
In great temptations, for fear of succumbing, the
just may with advantage call to their aid the
thought of hell, thereby to save themselves from
eternal damnation and the loss of Paradise. But
the first principles of the doctrine of salvation teach
us that, to avoid evil and do good, simply from the
motive of pure and disinterested love of God, is
the most perfect and meritorious mode of action.
2. Paral. ate az
48 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
What! say some:—Must we cease to fear God
and to hope in Him? What, then, becomes of acts
of holy fear, and of the virtueof hope? If a mother
were to abuse the doctor who had restored her child
to life, would it not excite a strong suspicion that it
was she herself who had attempted to smother it?
Did not she who said to Solomon: Let it be
divided,* show herself to be the false mother?
They who are so much attached to servile fear can
have no real desire to attain to that holy, pure,
loving, reverent fear which leads to everlasting rest,
and which the Saints and Angels practise through
all eternity.
Let us listen to what Blessed Francis further says
on this subject.
“ When we were little children, how eagerly and
busily we used to collect tiny scraps of cloth, bits
of wood, handfuls of clay, to build houses and make
little boats! And if any one destroyed these won-
derful erections, how unhappy we were; how bit-
terly we cried! But now we smile when we think
how trivial it all was.
‘* Well,” he goes on to say, “‘ let us, since we are
but children, be pardoned if we act as such; but, at
the same time, do not let us grow cold and dull in
our work. If any one knocks over our little houses,
and spoils our small plans, do not let us now be
unhappy or give way altogether on that account.
The less so because when the evening comes, and
we need a roof, I mean when death is at hand, these
poor little buildings of ours will be quite unfit to
shelter us. We must then be safely housed in our
Father’s Mansion, which is the Kingdom of His
well-beloved Son.”’
*1 Kings iii. 26.
God should Suffice for us All 49
GOD SHOULD SUFFICE FOR US ALL.
A person of some consideration, and one who
made much profession of living a devout life, was
overtaken by sudden misfortune, which deprived
her of almost all her wealth and left her plunged in
grief. Her distress of mind was so inconsolable
that it led her to complain of the Providence of God,
who appeared, she said, to have forgotten her.
All her faithful service and the purity of her life
seemed to have been in vain.
Blessed Francis, full of compassionate sympathy
for her misfortunes, and anxious to turn her
thoughts from the contemplation of herself and of
earthly things, to fix them on God, asked her if He
was not more to her than anything; nay, if, in fact,
God was not Himself everything to her; and if,
having loved Him when He had given her many
things, she was not now ready to love Him, though
she received nothing from Him. She, however, re-
plying that such language was more speculative
than practical, and easier to speak than to carry into
effect, he wound up by saying, with St. Augustine:
Too avaricious is that heart to which God does
not suffice. ‘‘ Assuredly, he who is not satisfied
with God is covetous indeed.” This word covetous
produced a powerful effect upon the heart of one
who, in the days of her prosperity, had always hated
avarice, and had been most lavish in her expendi-
ture, both on her own needs and pleasures and on
works of mercy. It seemed as if suddenly the eyes
of her soul were opened, and she saw how admir-
able, how infinitely worthy of love God ever re-
mained, whether with those things she had pos-
sessed or without them. So, by degrees, she forgot
D
50 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
herself and her crosses; grace prevailed, and she
knew and confessed that God was all in all to her.
Such efficacy have a Saint’s words, even if unpre-
meditated.
CHARITY THE SHORT ROAD TO PERFECTION.
Blessed Francis, in speaking of perfection, often
remarked that, although he heard very many people
talking about it, he met with very few who prac-
tised it. ‘‘ Many, indeed,” he would say, “‘ are so
mistaken in their estimate of what perfection is,
that they take effects for the cause, the rivulet for
the spring, the branches for the root, the accesso-
ries for the principle, and often even the shadow for
the substance.
For myself, I know of no Christian perfection
other than to love God with our whole heart and
our neighbour as ourselves. All other perfection is
falsely so entitled: it is sham gold that does not
stand testing.
Charity is the only bond between Christians, the
only virtue which unites us absolutely to God, and
our neighbour.
In charity lies the end of every perfection and
the perfection of every end. I know that mortifica-
tion, prayer, and the other exercises of virtue, are all
means to perfection, provided that they are prac-
tised in charity, and from the motive of charity.
But we must never regard any of these means
towards attaining perfection as being in them-
selves perfection. This would be to stop short on
the road, and in the middle of the race, instead of
reaching the goal.
The Apostle exhorts us, indeed, to run, but so as
Charity the Short Road to Perfection 51
to carry off the prize*, which is for those only who
have breath enough to reach the end of the course.
In a word, all our actions must be done in charity
if we wish to walk in a manner, as says St. Paul,
worthy of God; that is to say, to hasten on towards
perfection.
Charity is the way of true life; it is the truth of
the living way; it is the life of the way of truth.
All virtue is dead without it: it is the very life
of virtue. No one can reach the last and supreme
end, God Himself, without charity; it is the way to
Him. There is no true virtue without charity,
says St. Thomas; it is the very truth of virtue.”
In conclusion, and in answer to my repeated
question as to how we were to go to work in order
to attain to this perfection, this supreme love of
God and of our neighbour, our Blessed Father said
that we must use exactly the same method as we
should in mastering any ordinary art or accom-
plishment. ‘‘ We learn,” he said, ‘‘to study by
studying, to play on the lute by playing, to dance
by dancing, to swim by swimming. So also we
learn to love God and our neighbour by loving
them, and those who attempt any other method are
mistaken.”
You ask me, my sisters, how we can discover
whether or not we are making any progress towards
perfection. I cannot do better than consult our
oracle, Blessed Francis, and answer you in his
own words, taken from his eighth Conference.
‘“ We can never know what perfection we have
reached, for we are like those who are at sea; they
do not know whether they are making progress or
not, but the pilot knows, knowing the course. So
™rOor. i. g
52 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
we cannot estimate our own advancement, though
we may that of others, for we dare not assure our-
selves when we have done a good action that we
have done it perfectly—humility forbids us to do
so. Nay, even were we able to judge of the virtues
of others, we must never determine in our minds
that one person is better than another, because
appearances are deceitful, and those who seem very
virtuous outwardly and in the eyes of creatures,
may be less so in the sight of God than others who
appear much more imperfect.’’
I have often heard him say that the multiplicity
of means proposed for advancement towards perfec-
tion frequently delays the progress of souls. They
are like travellers uncertain of the way, and who
seeing many roads branching off in different direc-
tions stay and waste their time by enquiring here
and there which of them they ought to take in
order to reach their journey’s end. He advised
people to confine themselves rather to some special
Spiritual exercise or virtue, or to some well-chosen
book of piety—for example, to the exercise of the
presence of God, or of submission to His will, or
to purity of intention, or some similar exercise.
Among books, he recommended chiefly, Tne
Spiritual Combat, The Imitation of Jesus Christ,
The Method of Serving God, Grenada, Blosius, and
such like. Among the virtues, as you know well,
his favourites were gentleness and humiljty, charity
—without which others are of no value—being
always pre-supposed.
On this subject of advancement towards perfec-
tion, he speaks thus in the ninth of his Conferences:
‘‘ Tf you ask me, ‘ What can I do to acquire the
love of God?’ I answer, Will; i.e., try to love
Charity the Short Road to Perfection 53
Him; and instead of setting to work to find out how
you can unite your soul to God, put the thing in
practice by a frequent application of your mind to
Him. Iassure you that you will arrive much more
quickly at your end by this means than in any other
way.
For the more we pour ourselves out the less
recollected we shall be, and the less capable of union
with the Divine Majesty, who would have all we
are without reserve.”’
He continues: ‘‘ One actually finds souls who are
so busy in thinking how they shall do a thing that
they have no time to do it. And yet, in what con-
cerns our perfection, which consists in the union
of our soul with the Divine Goodness, there is no
question of knowing much; but only of doing.”
Again, in the same Conference, he says: “‘ It
seems to me that those of whom we ask the road
to Heaven are very right in answering us as those
do who tell us that, in order to reach such a place,
we must just go on putting one foot before the
other, and that by this means we shall arrive where
we desire. Walk ever, we say to thcse souls so
desirous of their perfection, walk in the way of your
vocation with simplicity, more intent on doing than
on desiring. That isthe shortest road.” ‘* And,”
he adds, ‘‘in aspiring to union with the Beloved,
there is no other secret than to do what we aspire
to—that is, to labour faithfully in the exercise of
Divine love.”
UPON WHAT IT IS TO LOVE Gop TRULY.
In connection with this subject of the love of God
and of our neighbour, I asked our Blessed Father
54 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
what loving in this sense of the word really was.
He replied: ‘‘ Love is the primary passion of our
emotional desires, and a primary element in that
emotional faculty which is the will. So that to will
is nothing more than to love what is good, and love
is the willing or desiring what is good. If we
desire good for ourselves we have what is called self-
love ; if we desire good for another we have the love
of friendship.”
To love God and our neighbour, then, with the
love of charity, which is the love of friendship, is
to desire good to God for Himself, and to our
neighbour in God and for the love of God. We
can desire two sorts of good for God: that which He
has, rejoicing that He is what He is, and that
nothing can be added to the greatness and to the
infinity of His inward perfection; and that which
He has not, by wishing it for Him, either effec-
tively, if it is in our power to give it to Him, or by
loving and longing, if it is not in our power to give
it. For, indeed, there isa good which God desires
and which is not His as it should be in perfection.
That external good, as it is called, is the good which
proceeds from the honour and glory rendered to
Him by His creatures, especially by those among
them endowed with reason. This isthe good which
David wishes to God in so many of his Psalms.
Among others, in the Praise ye the Lord from the
heavens,* and in the Bless the Lord, O my soul.t
The three children also in the fiery furnace wish
this good to God by their canticle: All ye works of
the Lord, bless the Lord.}
If we truly love God we shall try to bring this
good to Him through ourselves, surrendering our
“Psalm cxivin. 1 8d. ciii. 1. Dan. Hi 57.
Upon the Love of God in General 55
whole being to Him, and doing all our actions,
the indifferent as well as the good, for His glory.
Not content with that, we shall also strive with
all our might to make our neighbour serve and love
God, so that by all and in all things God may be
honoured.
To love our neighbour in God is to rejoice in the
good which our neighbour possesses, provided,
indeed, that he makes use of it for the divine glory ;
to render him in his need all the assistance which
lies within our power; to be zealous for the welfare
of his soul, and to work for it as we do for our own,
because God wills and desires it. That is to have
true and unfeigned charity, and to love God sin-
cerely and steadfastly for His own sake and our
neighbour for the love of Him.
UPON THE LOVE OF GOD IN GENERAL.
A whole mountain of virtues, if destitute of this
living, reigning, and triumphant love, was to
Blessed Francis but as a petty heap of stones. He
was never weary of inculcating love of God as the
supreme motive of every action.
The whole of his Theotimus (The Treatise on the
Love of God) breathes this sentiment, and he often
told me that it was impossible to insist upon it too
strongly in our teaching and advice to our people.
“ For, in fact,” he used to say, ‘‘ what is the use of
running a race if we do not reach the goal, or of
drawing the bow if we do not hit the target? Oh!
how many good works are useless as regards the
glory of God and the salvation of souls, for want
of this motive of charity! And yet, this is the last
thing people think of, as if the intention were not
56 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the very soul of a good action, and as if God had
ever promised to reward works not done for His
glory, and not applied to His honour.
ALL FOR LOVE OF Gop.
You know very well how Blessed Francis valued
charity, but I will give you, nevertheless, some
more of his teaching on this great subject.
To a holy soul who had placed herself under his
direction, he said: ‘‘ We must do all things from
love, and nothing from constraint. We must love
obedience rather than fear disobedience. I leave
you the spirit of liberty: not such as excludes
Obedience, for that is the liberty of the flesh, but
such as excludes constraint, scruples, and over-
eagerness. However much you may love obedi-
ence and submission, I wish you to suspend for the
moment the work in which obedience has engaged
you whenever any just or charitable occasion for
so doing occurs. This omission will be a species
of obedience. Fill up its measure by charity.”
From this spirit of holy and christian liberty
originated the saying so often to be met with in his
letters: ‘‘ Keep your heart in peace.’’ That is to
say: Beware of hurry, anxiety, and bitterness of
heart. These he called the ruin of devotion. He
was even unwilling that people should meditate
upon the great truths of Death, Judgment and Hell,
unless they at the same time reassured themselves
by the remembrance of God’s love for them. Speak-
ing toa holy soul, he says: *‘ Meditation on the four
last things will be useful to you provided that you
always end with an act of confidence in God.
Never represent to yourself Death or Hell on the
All for Love of God 57
one side unless the Cross is on the other; so that
when your fears have been excited by the one you
may with confidence turn for help to the other.”
The one point on which he chiefly insisted was that
we must fear God from love, not love God from
fear. ‘‘ To love Him from fear,” he used to say,
‘is to put gall into our food and to quench our
thirst with vinegar; but to fear Him from love is to
sweeten aloes and wormwoaod.”’
Assuredly, our own experience convinces us that
it is difficult to love those whom we fear, and that
it is impossible not to fear with a filial and reverent
fear those whom we love.
You find some difficulty, it seems, my sisters, in
understanding how all things, as St. Paul says,”
whether good, bad, or indifferent, can in the end
work together for good to those who love God.
To satisfy you, I quote the words of Blessed
Francis on this subject in one of his letters.
“ Since,” he says, ‘God can bring good out of
evil, will He not surely do so for those who have
given themselves unreservedly to Him? Yes;
even sins, from which may God in His goodness
keep us, are by His Divine Providence, when we
repent of them, changed into good for those who
are His. Never would David have been so bowed
down with humility if he had not sinned, nor would
Magdalene have loved her Saviour so fervently had
He not forgiven her so many sins. But He could
not have forgiven them had she not committed
them.”
Again :‘“‘ Consider, my dear daughter, this great
Artificer of mercy, who changes our miseries into
graces, and out of the poison of our iniquities com-
*Rom. viil. 28.
58 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
pounds a wholesome medicine for our souls. Tell
me, then, I beseech you, if God works such won-
ders with our sins, what will He not effect with our
afflictions, with our labours, with the persecutions
which we have to endure? No matter what trouble
befalls you, nor from what direction it may come,
let your soul be at peace, certain that if you truly
love God all will turn to good. And though you
cannot see the springs which work this marvellous
change, rest assured that it will take place.
If the hand of God touches your eyes with the
clay of shame and reproach, it is only to give you
clearer sight, and to cause you to be honoured.
If He should cast you to the ground, as He did
St. Paul, it will only be to raise you up again to
glery.’’*
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
“ All by love, nothing by constraint.” This was
his favourite motto, and the mainspring of his
direction of others. He has often said to me that
those who try to force the human will are exercis-
ing a tyranny which is hateful to God and man.
This was why he had such a horror of those master-
ful and dominant spirits which insist on being
obeyed, bon gré mal gré, and would have every one
give way to them. ‘‘ Those,’’ he often said, ‘‘ who
love to make themselves feared, fear to make them-
selves loved; and they themselves are more fearful
than anyone else: for others only fear them, but
they are afraid of every one.”
I have often heard him say these striking words:
“In the royal galley of divine love there is no
galley-slave; all the oarsmen are volunteers.”
* Rom. viii. 28.
The Same Subiect Continued 59
And he expresses the same sentiment in Theotimus,
when he says: ‘* Divine love governs the soul with
an incomparable sweetness; for no one of the slaves
of love is made such by force, but love brings all
things under its rule, with a constraint so delight-
ful, that as nothing is so strong as love, nothing
also is so sweet as its strength.’’* And in another
part of the same book he makes a soul, attracted
by the delicious perfume shed by the divine Bride-
groom on his path, say:
‘““ Let no one think that Thou draggest me after
Thee like an unwilling slave ora lifeless load. Ah!
no. Thou drawest me by the odour of Thine oint-
ments; though I follow Thee, it is not that Thou
draggest me, but that Thou enticest me. Thy
drawing is mighty, but not violent, since its whole
force lies in its sweetness. Perfumes draw me to
follow them in virtue only of their sweetness. And
Sweetness, how can it attract but sweetly and plea-
santly?’’t Following out this principle, he never
gave a command even to those who were bound to
obey him, whether his servants or his clergy, save
in the form of a request or suggestion. He held in
special veneration, and often inculcated upon me the
command of St. Peter: Feed the flock of God
which is among you, not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre’s sake, neither as lord-
ing it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of
virtue to the flock.*
And here, my sisters, I feel that it will be for
your profit, although the story is not to my own
credit, to relate a circumstance which occurred in
the early years of my episcopate. I was young,
* Book 1.6. +t Book ii. 13.
tı Peter v. 2, 3.
60 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
impetuous, and impatient; eager to reform the
abuses and disorders which from time to time I met
with in my pastoral visitations. Often, too, I
know, I was bitter and harsh when discouraged.
Once in a despairing mood because of the many
failures I noticed in myself, and others, I poured
forth my lamentations and self-accusations to our
Blessed Father, who said: ‘‘ What a masterful
spirit you have! You want to walk upon the wings
of the wind. You let yourself be carried away by
your zeal, which, like a will-of-the-wisp, will
surely lead you over a precipice. Have you for-
gotten the warning of your patron, St. Peter, not
to think you can walk in burning heat?* Would
you do more than God, and restrain the liberty of
the creatures whom God has made free? You de-
cide matters, as if the wills of your subjects were
allin yourown hands. God, Who holds all hearts
in His and Who searches the reins and the
hearts, does not act thus. He puts up with resis-
tance, rebellion against His light, kicking against
the goad, opposition to His inspirations, even
though His Spirit be grieved thereby. He does,
indeed, suffer those to perish who through the hard-
ness of their impenitent hearts have heaped to them-
selves wrath in the day of vengeance. Yet He
never wearies of calling them to Him, however often
they reject His offers and say to Him, Depart from
us, we will not follow Thy ways.t
“In this our Angel Guardians follow His ex-
ample, and although we may forsake God by our
iniquities, they will not forsake us as long as there
is breath in our body, even though we may have
*, Peter iv. 12. tJob xxi. 14.
Upon the Love of God, ke. 61
fallen into sin. Do you want better examples for
regulating your conduct?”
UPON THE LOVE OF GOD, CALLED LOVE OF
BENEVOLENCE.
You ask me what I have to say as regards the
love of benevolence towards God. What good
thing can we possibly wish for God which He has
not already, What can we desire for Him which
He does not possess far more fully than we can
desire Him to have it?
What good can we do to Him to Whom all our
goods belong, and Who has all good in Himself;
or, rather, Who is Himself all good?
I reply to this question as I have done to others,
that there are many spiritual persons, and some
even of the most gifted, who are greatly mistaken
in their view of this matter.
We must distinguish in God two sorts of good,
the one interior, the other exterior. The first is
Himself; for His goodness, like His other attri-
butes, is one and the same thing with His essence
or being.
Now this good, being infinite, can neither be
augmented by our serving God and by our honour-
ing Him, nor can it be diminished by our rebelling
against Him and by our working against Him.
It is of it that the Psalmist speaks when he says
that our goods are nothing unto Him.
But there is another kind of good which is exte-
rior; and this, though it belongs to God, is not in
Him, but in His creatures, just as the moneys of
the king are, indeed, his, but they are in the coffers
of his treasurers and officials.
62 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
This exterior good consists in the honours,
obedience, service, and homage which His creatures
owe and render to Him: creatures of whom each one
has of necessity His glory as the final end and aim
of its creation, And this good it is which we can,
with the grace of God, desire for Him, and ourselves
give to Him, and which we can either by our
good works increase or by our sins take from.
In regard to this exterior good, we can practise
towards God the love of benevolence by doing all
things, and all good works in our power, in order
to increase His honour, or by having the intention
to bless, glorify, and exalt Him in all our actions;
and much more by refraining from any action
which might tarnish God’s glory and displease
Him, Whose will is our inviolable law.
The love of benevolence towards God does not
stop here. For, because charity obliges us to love
our neighbour as ourselves from love of God, we
try to urge on our fellow-men to promote this
Divine glory, each one as far as he can. We in-
cite them to do all sorts of good, so as thereby to
magnify God the more. Thus the Psalmist said to
his brethren, O magnify the Lord with me, and let
us extol His name together.*
This same ardour incites and presses us also
(urget is the word used by St. Paul) to do our
utmost to aid our neighbour to rise from sin, which
renders him displeasing to God, and to prevent sin
by which the Divine Goodness is offended. This
is what is properly called zeal, the zeal which con-
sumed the Psalmist when he saw how the wicked
forget God, and which caused him to cry out:
My zeal has made me pine away, because my
*Psalm xxxiii. 4.
Upon the Love of God, ke. 63
enemies forgot thy words.* And again, The zeal
of thy house hath eaten me up.t
You ask if this love of benevolence might not
also be exercised towards God in respect of that
interior and infinite good which He possesses and
which is Himself. I reply, with our Blessed
Father in his Theotimus, that we can wish Him
to have this good, by rejoicing in the fact that He
has it, and that He is what He is; hence that vehe-
ment outburst of David, Know ye, that the
Lord heis Godt And again, A great King above
all gods.
Moreover, the mystical elevations and the ecsta-
sies of the Saints were acts of the love of God in
which they wished Him all good and rejoiced in
His possessing it. Our imagination, too, may
help us, as it did St. Augustine, of whom our
Blessed Father writes:
“ This desire, then, of God, by imagination of
impossibilities, may be sometimes profitably prac-
tised in moments of great and extraordinary feel-
ings and fervours. We are told that the great St.
Augustine often made such acts, pouring out in an
excess of love these words: ‘ Ah! Lord, I am
Augustine, and Thou art God; but still, if that
which neither is nor can be were, that I were God,
and thou Augustine, I would, changing my con-
dition with Thee, become Augustine to the end
that Thou mightest be God.’’§
We can again wish Him the same good by re-
joicing in the knowledge that we could never, even
by desiring it, add anything to the incomprehen-
*Psalm cxvill. 139. tPsalm lxviii. to. {Psalm xciv. 3.
§Book v. c. 6.
64 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
sible infinity and infinite incomprehensibility of His
greatness and perfection. Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory: Praise to God in the highest. Amen.
DISINTERESTED LOVE OF GoD.
You know that among the Saints for whom our
Blessed Father had a special devotion, St. Louis of
France held a very prominent position.
Now, in the life of the holy King, written by
the Sieur de Joinville, there is a little story which
our Blessed Father used to say contained the sum-
mary of all Christian perfection; and, indeed, its
beauty and excellence have made it so well known
that we find it told or alluded to in most books of
devotion.
It is that of the holy woman—whose name,
though written in the Book of Life, is not recorded
in history—who presented herself to Brother Yves,
a Breton, of the Order of St. Dominic, whom King
Louis, being in the Holy Land, had sent as an
ambassador to the Caliph of Syria. She was hold-
ing in one hand a lighted torch, and in the other
a pitcher of water filled to the brim.
Addressing the good Dominican, she told him
that her intention was to burn up Paradise with the
one and to put out the fire of Hell with the other,
in order that henceforth God might be served with
a holy and unfeigned charity. That is to say, with
a true and disinterested love, for love of Himself
alone, not from a servile and mercenary spirit;
i.e., from fear of punishment or hope of reward.
Our Blessed Father told me that he should have
liked this story to be told on all possible occasions,
Upon the Character of a True Christian 65
and to have had engravings of the subject for dis-
tribution, so that by so beautiful an example many
might be taught to love and serve God with true
charity, and to have no other end in view than His
Divine glory; for true charity seeks not her own
advantage, but only the honour of her Beloved.
UPON THE CHARACTER OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN.
A Salamander, according to the fable, is a crea-
ture hatched in the chilling waters of Arctic
regions, and is consequently by nature so cold that
it delights in the burning heat of a furnace. Fire,
said the ancients, cannot consume it nor even
scorch it.
“ Just so is it with the christian,” said Blessed
Francis. ‘‘ He is born in a region far away from
God, and is altogether alien from Him. He is con-
ceived in iniquity and brought forth in sin, and sin
is far removed from the way of salvation. Man
is condemned before his very birth. Damnatus
antequam natus, says St. Bernard. He is born in
the darkness of original sin and in the region of
the shadow of death. But, being born again in the
waters of Baptism, in which he is clothed with the
habit of charity, the fire of the holy love of God
is enkindled in him. Henceforth his real life, the
life of grace and of spiritual growth, depends abso-
lutely upon his abiding in that love; for he who
loves not thus is dead; while, on the other hand, by
this love man is called back from death to life.”
“ Charity,” he continued, “‘is like a fire and a
devouring flame. The little charity which we pos-
sess in this life is liable to be extinguished by the
violent temptations which urge us, or, to speak
E
66 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
more truly, precipitate us into mortal sin; but that
of the life to come is a flame all-embracing and all-
conquering—it can neither fail nor flicker.
On earth charity, like fire, needs fuel to nourish
it and keep it alive; but in its proper sphere, which
is Heaven, it feeds upon its own inherent heat, nor
needs other nourishment. It is of vital importance
here below to feed our charity with the fuel of good
works, for charity is a habit so disposed to action
that it unceasingly urges on those in whom the
Holy Spirit has shed it abroad to perform such
works. This the Apostle expresses very aptly:
The charity of Christ presseth us.*
St. Gregory adds that the proof of true, un-
feigned love is action, the doing of works seen and
known to be good. For, if faith is manifested by
good works, how much more charity, which is the
root, the foundation, the soul, the life, and the form
of every good and perfect work.”
Upon Not PUTTING LIMITS TO OUR LOVE OF GoD.
Blessed Francis used to say that those who nar-
row their charity, limiting it to the performance of
certain duties and offices, beyond which they would
not take a single step, are base and cowardly souls,
who seem as though they wished to enclose in their
own hands the mighty Spirit of God. Seeing that
God is greater than our heart, what folly it is to
try to shut Him up within so small a circle.
On this subject of the immeasurable greatness of
the love which we should bear to God, he uttered
these remarkable words: ‘‘ To remain long in a
*2 Cor. v. 14.
Upon the Law and the Just Man 67
settled, unchanging condition is impossible: in this
traffic he who does not gain, loses; he who does not
mount this ladder, steps down; he who is not con-
queror in this combat, is vanquished. We live in
the midst of battles in which our enemies are
always engaging us. If we do not fight we perish;
but we cannot fight without overcoming, nor over-
come without victory, followed by a triumph and a
crown.’’
UPON THE LAW AND THE JusT MAN.
You ask me the meaning of the Apostle’s saying
that the law is not made for the just man.* Can
any man be just unless he accommodate his actions
to the rule of the law? Is it not in the observance
of the law that true justice consists?
Our Blessed Father explains this passage so
clearly and delicately in his Theotimus that I will
quote his words for you. He says: “‘ In truth the
just man is not just, save inasmuch as he has love.
And if he have love, there is no need to threaten
nim by the rigour of the law, love being the most
insistent of all teachers, and ever urging the heart
which it possesses to obey the will and the intention
of the beloved. Love is a magistrate who exercises
his authority without noise and without police.
Its instrument is mutual complacency, by which,
as we find pleasure in God, so also we desire to
please Him.’’t
Permit me to add to these excellent words a re-
minder which ought not, I think, to be unprofitable
to you. Some imagine that it is enough to observe
the law of God in order to save our souls, obeying
*] Tim. i. 9. +tBook viii. c. 1.
68 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the command of our Lord: Do this, that is to say,
the law, and you shall live,* without attempting to
determine the motive which impels them to observe
the law.
Now the truth is that some observe the law of
God from a servile spirit, and only for fear of losing
their souls. Others chiefly from a mercenary spirit
for the sake of the reward promised to those who
keep it, and, as our Blessed Father says very hap-
pily: “ Many keep the Commandments as medi-
cines are taken, rather that they may escape eternal
death than that they may live so as to please our
Saviour.” One of his favourite sayings was: “It
is better to fear God from love than to love Him
from fear.”
He says also: ‘‘ There are people who, however
pleasant a medicament may be, feel a repugnance
when required to take it, simply from the fact ,of its
being medicine. Soalso there are souls which con-
ceive an absolute antipathy to anything they are
commanded to do, only because they are so com-
manded.’’ As soon, however, as the love of God
is shed forth in the heart by the Holy Spirit, then
the burden of the law becomes sweet, and its yoke
light, because of the extreme desire of that heart
to please God by the observance of His precepts.
‘There is no labour,” he goes on to say, ‘* where
love is, or if there be any, it is a labour of love.
Labour mingled with love is a certain bitter-sweet,
more pleasant to the palate than that which is
merely sweet. Thus then does heavenly love con-
form us to the will of God and make us carefully
observe His commandments, this being the will of
His Divine Majesty, Whom we desire to please.
*Luke x. 28.
Upon Desires 69
So that this complacency with its sweet and amiable
violence anticipates the necessity of obeying which
the law imposes upon us, converting that necessity
into the virtue of love, and every difficulty into de-
ight.” *
Upon DESIRES.
To desire to love God is to love to desire God,
and consequently to love Him: for love is the root
of all desires.
St. Paul says: The charity of God presses us.t
And how does it press us if not by urging us to
desire God. This longing for God is as a spur to
the heart, causing it to leap forward on its way to
God. The desire of glory incites the soldier to run
all risks, and he desires glory because he loves it for
its own sake, and deems it a blessing more precious
than life itself.
A sick man has not always an appetite for food,
however much he may wish for it as a sign of re-
turning health. Nor can he by wishing for it
obtain it, because the animal powers of our nature
do not always obey the rational faculties.
Love and desire, however, being the offspring of
one and the same faculty, whoever desires, loves,
and whoever desires from the motive of charity is
able to love from the same motive. But how, you
ask, shall we know whether or not we have this true
desire for the love of God, and having it, whether
it proceeds from the motions of grace or from
nature ?
It is rather difficult, my dear sisters, to give
reasons for principles which are themselves their
*Cf. Treatise on the Love of God. Book viii. c. 5.
T2 Cor.: rg
70 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
own reason. If you ask me why the fire is hot you
must not take it amiss if I simply answer because
it is not cold.
But you wish to know what we have to do in
order to obtain this most desirable desire to love
God. Our Blessed Father tells us that we must
renounce all useless, or less necessary desires, be-
cause the soul wastes her power when she spreads
herself out in over many desires, like the river
which when divided by the army of a Persian King
into many channels lost itself altogether. ‘* This,”
he said, “‘is why the Saints used to retire into
solitary places, so that being freed from earthly
cares they might with more fervour give themselves
up wholly and entirely to divine love. This is
why the spouse in the Canticles is represented with
one eye closed, and all the power of vision concen-
trated in the other, thus enabling her to gaze more
intently into the very depths of the heart of her
Beloved, piercing it with love.
This 1s why she even winds all her tresses into
one single braid, using it as a chain to bind and
hold captive the heart of her Bridegroom, making
Him her slave by love! Souls which sincerely de-
sire to love God, close their understanding to all
worldly things, so as to employ it the more fully
in meditating upon things Divine.
All the aspirations of our nature have to be
summed up in the one single intention of loving
God, and Him alone: for to desire anything other-
wise than for God is to desire God the less.’’*
How CHARITY EXCELS BOTH FAITH AND HOPE.
Not only did Blessed Francis consider it intoler-
*Cf. Treatise on the Love of God. Book xii. 3.
How Charity Excels both Faith and Hope 71
able that moral virtues should be held to be com-
parable to Charity, but he was even unwilling that
Faith and Hope, excellent, supernatural, and
divinely infused though they be, should be reckoned
to be of value without Charity, or even when com-
pared with it. In this he only echoed the thought
and words of the great Apostle St. Paul, who in his
first Epistle to the Corinthians writes: Faith, Hope,
and Charity are three precious gifts, but the
greatest of these 1s Charity.
Faith, it is true, is love, ‘‘a love of the mind
for the beautiful in the divine Mysteries,’’ as our
Blessed Father says in his Treatise on the Love of
God,* but ‘‘ the motions of love which forerun the
act of faith required from our justification are either
not love properly speaking, or but a beginning
and imperfect love,” which inclines the soul to
acquiesce in the truths proposed for its acceptance.
Hope, too, is love, “‘a love for the useful in
the goods which are promised in the other life.’’+
‘It goes, indeed, to God but it returns to us; its
sight is turned upon the divine goodness, yet with
some resject to our own profit.”
‘In Hope love is imperfect because it does
not tend to God’s infinite goodness as being such
in itself, but only because it is so to us. . . . In real
truth no one is able by virtue of this love either
to keep God’s commandments or obtain life ever-
lasting, because it is a love that yields more affec-
tion than effect when it is not accompanied by
Charity.” |
But the perfect love of God, which is only to
be found in Charity, is a disinterested love, which
loves the sovereign goodness of God in Himself
*Book ii. 13. tBook i. c. 5. {Book ii. 17.
72 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and for His sake only, without any aim except that
He may be that which He is, eternally loved,
glorified, and adored, because He deserves to be so,
as St. Thomas says. And it is in the fact that it
attains more perfectly its final end that its pre-
eminence consists. This is very clearly shown by
Blessed Francis in the same Treatise where he tells
us that Eternal life or Salvation is shown to
Faith, and is prepared for Hope, but is given only
to Charity. Faith points out the way to the land
of promise as a pillar of cloud and of fire, that is,
light and dark; Hope feeds us with its manna
of sweetness, but Charity actually introduces us
into it, like the Ark of the Covenant, which leads
us dry-shod through the Jordan, that is, through
the judgment, and which shall remain amidst the
people in the heavenly land promised to the true
Israelites, where neither the pillar of Faith serves
as a guide, nor the manna of Hope is needed as
food.*
That which an ancient writer said of poverty,
that it was a great good, yet very little known as
such, can be said with far more reason of Charity.
It is a hidden treasure, a pearl shut up in its shell,
and of which few know the value. The heretics of
the present day profess themselves content with
a dead Faith, to which they attribute all their
justice and their salvation. There are also
catholics who appear to limit themselves to that
interested love which is in Hope, and who serve
God as mercenaries, more for their own interest
than for His. There are few who love God as
He ought to be loved, that is to say, with the
disinterested love of Charity. Yet, without this
* Book i. 6.
How Charity Eacels both Faith and Hope 73
wedding garment, without this oil which fed the
lamps of the wise Virgins, there is no admittance
to the Marriage of the Lamb.
It is here that we may sing with the Psalmist:
The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon
the children of men to see if there be any that
understand and seek God, that is, to know how
He wishes to be served. They are all gone aside,
they are become unprofitable together: there is
none that doeth good, no, not one.* This means
that there is not one who doth good in spirit and
in truth. Yet, what is serving Him in spirit and in
truth but resolving to honour and obey Him, for
the love of Himself, without admixture of private
self-interest ?
But whoever has learnt to serve God after the
pattern of those His beloved ones, who worship
Him in spirit and in truth, in burning Faith and
Hope, animated by Charity, may be said to be of
the number of the holy nation, the royal Priest-
hood, the chosen people, and to have entered into
the sanctuary of true and Christian holinesss, of
which our Blessed Father speaks thus: ‘‘In the
sanctuary was kept the ark of the covenant, and
near it the tables of the law, manna in a golden
vessel, and Aaron’s rod, which in one night bore
flowers and fruit. And in the highest point of
the soul are found: 1°. The light of Faith, figured
by the manna hidden in its vessel, by which we
recognize the truth of the mysteries we do not
understand. 2°. The utility of Hope, represented
by Aaron’s flowering and fruitful rod, by which
we acquiesce in the promises of the goods which
we see not. 3°. The sweetness of holy Charity,
“ealm itl. 2y a
74 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
represented by God’s commandments, the keeping
of which it includes, by which we acquiesce in the
union of our spirit with God’s, though yet are
hardly, if at all, conscious of this our happiness’’*
SOME ‘THOUGHTS OF BLESSED FRANCIS ON
THE PASSION.
Our Blessed Father considered that no thought
is of such avail to urge us forward towards the
perfection of divine love as the consideration of
the Passion and Death of the Son of God. This
he called the sweetest, and yet the most constrain-
ing of all motives of piety.
And when I asked him how he could possibly
mention gentleness and constraint or violence in the
same breath, he answered, “ I can do so in the sense
in which the Apostle says that the Charity of God
presses us, constrains us, impels us, draws us, for
such is the meaning of the word Urqet.t In the
same sense as that in which the Holy Ghost in the
Canticle of Canticles tells us that Love is as strong
as death and fierce as hell.”
‘We cannot deny,” he added, “‘that love is
the very essence of sweetness, and the sweetener of
all bitterness, yet see how it is compared to what
is most irresistible, namely, death and hell. The
reason of this is that as there is nothing so strong
as the sweetness of love, so also there is nothing
more sweet and more lovable than its strength.
Oil and honey are each smooth and sweet,but when
boiling nothing is to be compared with the heat they
give out.
* Book i. 12.
2° Cor, V. on
Some Thoughts of Blessed Francis, dc. 75
The bee when not interfered with is the most
harmless of insects; irritated its sting is the
sharpest of all.
Jesus Crucified is the Lion of the tribe of Judah—
He is the answer to Samson’s riddle, for in His
wounds is found the honeycomb of the strongest
charity, and from this strength proceeds the
sweetness of our greatest consolation. And cer-
tainly since our Lord’s dying for us, as all
Scripture testifies, is the climax of his love, it
ought also to be the strongest of all our motives
for loving Him.
This it is which made St. Bernard exclaim:
‘Oh, my Lord, I entreat Thee to grant that my
whole heart may be so absorbed and, as it were,
consumed in the burning strength and honeyed
sweetness of Thy crucified love, that I may die
for the love of Thy love, O Redeemer of my soul,
as Thou hast deigned to die for the love of my
love.’
It is this excess of love, which on the hill of
Calvary drained the last drop of life-blood from
the Sacred Heart of the Lover of our Souls; it
is of this love that Moses and Elias spoke on
Mount Thabor amid the glory of the Transfigura-
tion.
They spoke of it to teach us that even in the
glory of Heaven, of which the Transfiguration was
Only a glimpse, after the vision of the goodness
of God contemplated and loved in itself, and for
itself, there will be no more powerful incentive
towards the love of our Divine Saviour than the
remembrance of His Death and Passion.
We have a signal testimony to this truth in the
Apocalypse, where the Saints and Angels chant
76 = The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
these words before the throne of Him that liveth
for ever and ever: Worthy is the Lamb that was
slain to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom,
and strength, and honour, and glory, and benedic-
tion from every creature which is in Heaven, and
on the earth.’’*
UPON THE VANITY OF HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY.
I was speaking on one occasion of the writings
of Seneca and of Plutarch, praising them highly
and saying that they had been my delight when
young, our Blessed Father replied: ‘‘ After having
tasted the manna of the Fathers and Theologians,
this is to hanker for the leeks and garlic of Egypt.”
When I rejoined that these above mentioned
writers furnished me with all that I could desire
for instruction in morals, and that Seneca seemed
to me more like a christian author than a pagan,
he said: “* There I differ from you entirely. I con-
sider that no spirit is more absolutely opposed to
the spirit of christianity than that of Seneca, and
no more dangerous reading for a soul aiming at
true piety can be found than his works.”
Being much surprised at this opinion, and
asking for an explanation, he went on to say:
“ This opposition between the two spirits comes
from the fact that Seneca would have us look for
perfection within ourselves, whereas we must seek it
outside ourselves, in God, that is to say, in the
grace which God pours into our souls through the
Holy Ghost. NotI, but the grace of God with me.t
By this grace we are what we are. The spirit of
* Apoc. v. 12, 18.
tr Cor. x. 10.
Upon the Pure Love of Our Neighbour 77
Seneca inflates the soul and puffs it up with pride,
that of Christianity rejects the knowledge which
puffs up in order to embrace the charity which
edifies. In short, there is the same difference
between the spirit of Seneca and the christian
spirit that there is between virtues acquired by us,
which are, therefore, dead, and virtues that are
infused by God, which are, therefore, living.
Indeed, how could this philosopher, being destitute
of the true Faith, possess charity? And yet well
we know that without charity all acquired virtues
are unable to save us.”
UPON THE PURE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR.
Our Blessed Father, in his Twelfth Conference,
teaches how to love one’s neighbour, for whom
his own love was so pure and so unfeigned.
‘“ We must look upon all the souls of men as rest-
ing in the Heart of our Saviour. Alas! they who
regard their fellow-men in any other way run the
risk of not loving them with purity, constancy, or
impartiality. But beholding them in that divine
resting place, who can do otherwise than love them,
bear with them, and be patient with their imper-
fections? Who dare call them irritating or trouble-
some? Yes, my daughters, your neighbour is
there in the Heart of the Saviour, and there so be-
loved and lovable that the Divine Lover dies for
love of him.”
A truly charitable love of our neighbour is a
rarer thing than one would think. It is like the few
particles of gold which are found on the shores of
the Tagus, among masses of sand.
78 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Hear what he says on this subject in the eighth
of his Spiritual Conferences :
‘There are certain kinds of affection which
appear very elevated and very perfect in the eyes
of creatures, but which in the sight of God are of
low degree and valueless. Such are all friendships
based, not only on true charity, which is God, but
only on natural inclinations and human motives.
On the other hand, there are friendships which
in the eyes of the world appear mean and despi-
cable, but which in the sight of God have every
excellence, because they are built up in God, and
for God, without admixture of human interests.
Now acts of charity which are performed for those
whom we love in this way are truly noble in their
nature, and are, indeed, perfect acts, inasmuch as
they tend purely to God, while the services which
we render to those whom we love from natural
inclination are of far less merit. Generally speak-
ing, we do these more for the sake of the great
delight and satisfaction they cause us than for the
love of God.” He goes on to say: ‘‘ The former
kind of friendship is likewise inferior to the latter
in that it is not lasting. Its motive is so weak
that when slighted or not responded to it easily
grows cold, and finally disappears. Far otherwise
that affection which has its fcundation in God, and
therefore a motive which above all others is solid
and abiding.
Human affection is founded on the possession
by the person we love of qualities which may be lost.
It can, therefore, never be very secure. On the
contrary, he who loves in God, and only in God,
need fear no change, because God is always Him-
Upon Bearing with one Another 79
self.” Again, speaking on this subject, our
Blessed Father says: ‘‘ All the other bonds which
link hearts one to another are of glass, or jet; but
the chain of holy charity is of gold and diamonds.”
In another place he remarks: ‘“‘ St. Catherine of
Sienna illustrates the subject by means of a beauti-
ful simile. ‘If,’ she says, ‘you take a glass and
fill it from a spring, and if while drinking from this
glass you do not remove it from the spring, you
may drink as much as you please without ever
emptying the glass.’ So it is with friendships: if
we never withdraw them from their source they
never dry up.”
Upon BEARING WITH ONE ANOTHER.
He laid great stress at all times on the duty of
bearing with our neighbour, and thus obeying the
commands of Holy Scripture, Bear ye one another’s
burdens, and se you shall fulfil the law of Chnst,*
and the counsels of the Apostle who so emphati-
cally recommends this mutual support. ‘‘ To-day
mine, to-morrow thine.’ If to-day we put up with
the ill-temper of our brother, to-morrow he will
bear with our imperfections. We must in this life
do like those who, walking on ice, give their hands
to One another, so that if one slips, the other who
has a firm foothold may support him.
St. John the Evangelist, towards the close of his
life, exhorted his brethren not to deny one another
this support, but to foster mutual charity, which
prompts the Christian to help his neighbour, and
is one of the chiefest precepts of Jesus Christ, Who,
true Lamb of God, endured, and carried on His
*Gal. vi. 2.
80 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
shoulders, and on the wood of the Cross, all our
sins—an infinitely heavy burden, nor to be borne
by any but Him. The value set by our Blessed
Father on this mutual support was marvellous, and
he went so far as to look upon it as the crown of
our perfection.
He says on the subject to one who was very dear
to him: “It is a great part of our perfection to
bear with one another in our imperfections; for
there is no better way of showing our own love for
our neighbour.”’
God will, in His mercy, bear with him who has
mercifully borne with the defects of his neigh-
bour.
Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and tt
Shall be given to you. Good measure of blessings,
and pressed down, and shaken together, and run-
ning over Shall they give into your bosom.*
UPON FRATERNAL CORRECTION.
Speaking, my dear sisters, as he often did, on the
important subject of brotherly or friendly reproof,
our Blessed Father made use of words profitable to
us all, but especially to those who are in authority,
and have therefore to rule and guide others.
He said: ‘‘ Truth which is not charitable pro-
ceeds from a charity which is not true.”
When I asked him how we could feel certain that
our reproofs were given out of sincere charity, he
answered :
“ When we speak the truth only for the love of
God, and for the good of our neighbour, whom we
are reproving.”’
*St. Luke vi. 37, 38.
Upon Fraternal Correction 81
He added: ‘‘ We must follow the counsels of the
great Apostle St. Paul, when he bids us reprove in
a spirit of meekness.*
Indeed gentleness is the intimate friend of
charity and its inseparable companion.’’ This is
what St. Paul means when he says that charity 1s
kind, and beareth all things, and endureth all
things.t God, who is Charity, guides the mild in
judgment and teaches the meek. His way, His
Spirit, is not in the whirlwind, nor in the storm, nor
in the tempest, nor in the voice of many waters; but
in a gentle and whispering wind. Mildness is
come upon us, says the Royal Psalmist, and we
Shall be corrected.t
Again Blessed Francis advised us to imitate the
Good Samaritan, who poured oil and wine into the
wounds of the poor wayfarer fallen among thieves. §
He used to say that ‘“‘ to make a good salad you
want more oil than either vinegar or salt.”
I will give you some more of his memorable say-
ings on this subject. Many a time I have heard
them from his own lips: ** Always be as gentle as
you can, and remember that more flies are caught
with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred bar-
rels of vinegar. If we must err in one direction or
the other, let it be in that of gentleness. No sauce
was ever spoilt by too much sugar. The human
mind is so constituted that it rebels against harsh-
ness, but becomes perfectly tractable under gentle
treatment. A mild word cools the heat of anger, as
water extinguishes fire. There is no soil so un-
grateful as not to bear fruit when a kindly hand cul-
tivates it. To tell our neighbour wholesome truths
Gaal. vi: 1. » ty Cor xiii. 4, 7: {Psalm lxxxix. vo
Sot. Luke x. 34
F
82 The Spirit of St Francis De Sales
tenderly is to throw red roses rather than red-hot
coals in his face. How could we be angry with
any one who pelted us with pearls or deluged us
with rose water! There is nothing more bitter
than a green walnut, but when preserved in sugar
there is nothing sweeter or more digestible. Re-
proof is by nature harsh and biting, but confec-
tioned in sweetness and warmed through and
through in the fire of charity, it becomes salutary,
pleasant, and even delightful. The just will cor-
rect me with mercy, and the oil of the flatterer shall
not anoint my head.* Better are the wounds of a
friend than the kisses of the hypocrite;t if the
sharpness of the friend’s tongue pierce me it is only
as the lancet of the surgeon, which probes the
abscess and lacerates in order to heal.”
‘But (I replied) truth is always truth in whatever
language it may be couched, and in whatever sense
it may be taken.’’ In support of this assertion I
quoted the words spoken by St. Paul to Timothy:
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of
season, reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience
and doctrine; but, according to their own desires,
they will heap to themselves teachers having itch-
ing ears, and will, indeed, turn away their hearing
from the truth, but will be turned into fables.t
Our Blessed Father replied: ‘‘ The whole force
of that apostolic lesson lies in the phrase: In all
patience and doctrine. Doctrine signifies truth,
and this truth must be spoken with patience.
When I use the word patience, I am trying to put
before you an attitude of mind which is not one of
confident expectation, that truth will always meet
*Psalm cx). 5. +Prov. xxvii» 6. fi Tim. Ww. 2) @.
Upon Fraternal Correction 83
with a hearty welcome, and even some degree of
acclamation; but an attitude of mind which is on
the contrary prepared to meet with repulse, repro-
bation, rejection.
Surely, seeing that the Son of God was set for a
sign of contradiction, we cannot be surprised if His
doctrine, which is the truth, is marked with the
same seal! Surprised! Nay, of necessity it must
be so. |
Consider the many false constructions and mur-
murings to which the sacred truths preached by our
Saviour during His life on earth were exposed!
Was not this one of the reproaches addressed
by Him to the Jews: If I say the truth you believe
me not.
Was not our Lord Himself looked upon as an
impostor, a seditious person, a blasphemer, one
possessed by the devil? Did they not even take up
stones to cast at him? Yet, He cursed not those
who cursed Him; but repaid their maledictions with
blessings, possessing His soul in patience.”
Blessed Francis wrote to me on this same subject
a letter, which has since been printed among his
works,* in which he expressed himself as fol-
lows:
** Everyone who wishes to instruct others in the
way of holiness must be prepared to bear with their
injustice and unreasonableness, and to be rewarded
with ingratitude. Oh! how happy will you be
when men slander you, and say all manner of evil
of you, hating the truth which you offer them.
Rejoice with much joy, for so much the greater is
your reward in Heaven. It is a royal thing to be
84 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
calumniated for having done well, and to be stoned
in a good cause.”
Upon FINDING EXCUSES FOR THE FAULTS OF
OUR FELLOW-MEN.
I was one day complaining to him of certain
small land-owners, who having nothing but their
gentle birth to boast of, and being as poor as Job,
yet set up as great noblemen, and even as princes,
boasting of their high birth, of their genealogy, and
of the glorious deeds of their ancestors. I quoted
the saying of the wise man, that he hated, among
other things, with a perfect hatred the poor proud
man, adding that I entirely agreed with him.
To boast in the multitude of our riches is natural,
but to be vain in our poverty is beyond understand-
ing.
He answered me thus: ‘‘ What would you have?
Do you want these poor people to be doubly poor,
like sick physicians, who, the more they know about
their disease the more disconsolate they are? At
all events, if they are rich in honours they will think
the less of their poverty, and will behave perhaps
like that young Athenian, who in his madness con-
sidered himself the richest person in his neighbour-
hood, and being cured of his mental weakness
through the kind intervention of his friends, had
them arraigned before the judges, and condemned
to give him back his pleasant illusion. What
would you have, I repeat? It is in the very nature
of nobility to meet the rebuffs of fortune with a
cheerful courage; like the palm-tree which lifts itself
up under its burden. Would to God they had
Upon Finding Excuses, &c. 85
no greater failing than this! It is against that
wretched and detestable habit of fighting duels that
we ought to raise our voice.’ Saying this, he gave
a profound sigh.
A certain lady had been guilty of a most serious
fault, committed, indeed, through mere weakness
of character, but none the less scandalous in the
extreme. Our Blessed Father, being informed of
what had happened, and having every kind of vehe-
ment invective against the unfortunate person
poured into his ears, only said: “ Human misery!
human misery!’’ And again, “ Ah! how we are
encompassed with infirmity! What can we do of
ourselves, but fail? We should, perhaps, do worse
than this if God did not hold us by the right hand,
and guide us to His will.’’ At last, weary of fenc-
ing thus, he faced the battle, and the comments on
this unhappy fall becoming ever sharper and more
emphatic, exclaimed: “ Oh! happy fault, of what
great good will it not be the cause!* This lady’s
soul would have perished with many others had she
not lost herself. Her loss will be her gain, and the
gain of many others.”
Some of those who heard this prediction merely
shrugged their shoulders. Nevertheless, it was
verified. The sinning soul returned to give glory
to God, and the community which she had scanda-
lized was greatly edified by her conversion and sub-
sequent good example.
This story reminds me of the words used by the
Church in one of her offices. Words in which she
calls the sin of Adam thrice happy, since because
of it the Redeemer came down to our earth—a for-
*Office for Holy Saturday.
86 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
tunate malady, since it brought us the visit of so
great a Physician.
‘“ Even sins,’’? says our Blessed Father, in one
of his letters, ‘‘ work together for good to those who
truly repent of them.”
UPON NOT JUDGING OTHERS.
Men see the exterior; God alone sees the heart,
and knows the inmost thoughts of all. Our
Blessed Father used to say that the soul of our
neighbour was that tree of the knowledge of good
and evil which we are forbidden to touch under
pain of severe chastisement; because God has re-
served to Himself the judgment of each individual
soul. Who art thou, says Sacred Scripture, who
judgest thy brother? Knowest thou that wherein
thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself ?*
Who has given thee the hardihood to take upon
thyself the office of Him Who has received from the
Eternal Father all judgment? That is to say, all
power of judging in Heaven and on earth? He
observed that a want of balance of mind, very com-
mon among men, leads them to judge of what they
do not know, and not to judge of what they do
know. They, as St. Jude declares, blaspheme in
what they know not, and corrupt themselves in
what they know.+ They are blind to what passes
in their own homes, but preternaturally clear-
sighted to all happening in the houses of others.
Now what is this that a man knows not at all?
Surely, the heart; the secret thoughts of his neigh-
bour. And yet how eager is he to dip the fingers
of his curiosity in this covered dish reserved for the
*Rom. ii. 1. tSt. Jude ro.
Upon not judging others 87
Great Master. And what is it that a man knows
best of all, or at least ought to know? Surely, his
own heart; his own secret thoughts. Nevertheless,
he fears to enter into himself, and to stand in his
own presence as a criminal before his judge. He
dreads above aught besides the implacable tribunal
of his own conscience, itself alone more surely con:
victing than a thousand witnesses.
Our Blessed Father pictures very vividly this
kind of injustice in his Philothea, where he says:
“ It is equally necessary in order to escape being
judged that we both judge ourselves, and that we
refrain from judging others. Our Lord forbids the
latter* and His Apostle commands the former. If
we would judge ourselves we should not be
judged.t Our way is the very reverse. What is
forbidden to us we are continually doing. Judging
our neighbour on all possible occasions, and what
is commanded us, namely, to judge ourselves, that
the last thing we think of.’’
“ A certain woman ” (Blessed Francis continued
with a smile), ‘‘all her life long had on principle
done exactly the contrary to what her husband
wanted her to do. In the end she fell into a river
and was drowned. Her husband tried to recover
the body, but was found fault with for going up the
stream, since she must, necessarily, float down with
the current. ‘And do you really imagine,’ he
exclaimed, ‘ that even her dead body could do any-
thing else but contradict me?’ Weare, most of
us, very like that woman,” said the Saint. ‘‘ Yet
it is written: Judge not, and you shall not be
judged; condemn not, and you shall not be con-
demned.’’§
*St, Matt. vii. r. tr Cor. xi. 31. [7he Devout Life,
Part if. 28. SSt. Luke vi. 37.
88 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
How, then, you will say, is it lawful to have
judges and courts of justice, since man may not
judge his neighbour? I will try to answer this
objection in Blessed Francis’ own words:
“But may we, then, under no circumstances
judge our neighbour? Under no circumstances
whatever—for in a court of justice it is God, Philo-
thea, not man, who judges and pronounces sen-
tence. Itis true that He makes use of the voice of
the magistrate, but only to render His own sentence
audible to us. Earthly judges are His spokesmen
and interpreters, nor ought they to decide anything
but as they have learnt from Him of Whom they
are the oracles. It is when they do otherwise, and
follow the lead of their own passions, that they, and
not God, judge, and that consequently they them-
selves will be judged. In fact, it is forbidden to
men, as men, to judge others.* This is why Scrip-
ture gives the name of godst to judges, because
when judging they hold the place of God, and
Moses for that reason is called the god
of Pharaoh.’’}
You ask if we are forbidden to entertain doubts
about our neighbour when founded on good and
strong reasons. I answer we are not so forbidden,
because to suspend judgment is not to judge, but
only to take a step towards it. We must, neverthe-
less, beware of being thereby hurried on to form
a hasty judgment, for that is the rock on which so
many make shipwreck ; that is the flare of the torch
in which so many thoughtless moths singe their
tiny wings. Á
In order that we may avoid this danger he gives
*The Devout Life. Part iii. 28. ĦtPsalm lxxxi. r, 6.
tExod. vii. 1.
Upon not judging others 89
us an excellent maxim, one which is not only use-
ful, but necessary to us. Itis that, however many
aspects an action may have, the one we should
dwell upon should be that which is the best.
If it is impossible to excuse an action, we can at
least modify our blame of it by excusing the inten-
tion, or we may lay the blame on the violence of the
temptation, or impute it to ignorance, or to the
being taken by surprise, or to human weakness, so
as at least to try to lessen the scandal of it. If you
are told that by doing this you are blessing the
unrighteous and seeking excuses for sin, you may
reply that without either praising or excusing his
sin you can be merciful to the sinner.
You may add that judgment without mercy will
be the lot of those who have no pity for the misfor-
tunes or the infirmities of their brother, and who
in him despise their own flesh. We all are
brethren, all of one flesh. In fact, as says our
Blessed Father, those who look well after their own
consciences rarely fall into the sin of rash judg-
ment. To judge rashly is proper to slothful souls,
which, because they never busy themselves with
their own concerns, have leisure to devote their
energies to finding fault with others. .
An ancient writer expresses this well. Men who
are curious in their inquiries into the lives of others
are mostly careless about correcting their own
faults. The virtuous man is like the sky, of which
the stars are, as it were, the eyes turned in upon
itself.
~ Upon JUDGING OURSELVES.
“ We do,” as Blessed Francis has said, ‘‘ exactly
the reverse of what the Gospel bids us do. The
90 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Gospel commands us to judge ourselves severely
and exactly, while it forbids us to judge our
brethren. If we did judge ourselves, we should not
be judged by God, because, forestalling His judg-
ment and confessing our faults, we should escape
His condemnation. On the other hand, who are
we that we should judge our brethren, the servants
of another? To their own Master they rise or fall.
Let us not judge before the time until the Lord
shall reveal what is hidden in darkness and ‘pierce
the wall of the temple to show what passes therein.
Man judges by appearances only. God alone sees
the heart; and it is by that which is within that true
judgment is made of that which is without.
So rash are we in our judgments that we as
often as not seize the firebrand by the burning end;
that is, we condemn ourselves while in the very act
of rebuking others. The reproach of the Gospel,
Physician, heal thyself,* we may take to ourselves.
So also that other, Why seest thou the mote that is
in thy brother’s eye, and seest not the beam that is
in thy own eye?t To notice which way we are
going is the first condition of our walking in the
right way, according to the words of David, I have
thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy
testumonies.t So, on the other hand, we go astray
if we do not pay attention to the path we are follow-
ing. Judge not others and you will not be judged;
judge yourselves, and God will have mercy on
you.”
Upon SLANDER AND DETRACTION.
There is a difference between uttering a falsehood
and making a mistake—for to lie is to say what one
*St. Luke iv. 23. tSt. Matt. vii. 3. fPsalm cxviii. 509.
Upon Slander and Detraction 91
knows or believes to be false; but to mistake is to
say, indeed, what is false, but what one nevertheless
thinks in good faith to be true. Similarly, there is
a great difference between slandering our neighbour
and recounting his evil deeds. The wrong doing
of our neighbour may be spoken of either with a
good or with a bad intention. The intention is
good when the faults of our neighbour are reported
to one who can remedy them, or whose business it
is to correct the wrong-doer, whether for the public
good or for the sinner’s own.
Again, there is no harm in speaking among
friends of harm done, provided it be from friendli-
ness, benevolence, or compassion; and this more
especially when the fault is public and notorious.
We slander our neighbour, then, only when,
whether true or false, we recount his misdeeds with
intention to harm him, or out of hatred, envy,
anger, contempt, and from a wish to take away his
fair name.
We slander our neighbour when we make known
his faults, though neither obliged so to do nor hav-
ing in view his good nor the good of others. The
sin of slander is mortal or venial according to the
measure of the wrong we may thereby have done
to our neighbour.
Our Blessed Father used to say that to do away
with slander would be to do away with most of the
sins of mankind. He was right, for of sins of
thought, word, and deed, the most frequent and
often the most hurtful in their effects are those com-
mitted with the tongue. And this for several
reasons.
Firstly, sins of thought are only hurtful to him
92 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
who commits them. They are neither occasion for
scandal, nor do they annoy anyone, nor give any-
one bad example. God alone knows them, and it
is He alone who is offended by them. Then, too,
a return to God by loving repentance effaces them
in a moment, and heals the wound which they have
inflicted on the heart. |
Sins of the tongue, on the other hand, are not so
readily got rid of. A harmful word can only be
recalled by retracting it, and even then the minds
of our hearers mostly remain infected with the
poison we poured in through the ears; and this, in
spite of our humbling ourselves to recall what we
have said.
Secondly, sins of deed, when they are publicly
known, are followed by punishment. This renders
them rarer, because fear of the penalty acts as a
curb on even the basest of mankind.
But slander (except the calumny be of the most
atrocious and aggravated kind) is not, generally
speaking, such as comes before the eye of the law.
On the contrary, if in the guise of bantering it is
ingenious and subtle it passes current for gallantry
and wit.
This is why so many people fall into this evil;
for, says an ancient writer: “‘ Impunity is a dainty
allurement to sin.”
Thirdly, slandering finds encouragement in the
very small amount of restitution and reparation
made for this fault. Indeed, in my opinion, those
who direct souls in the tribunal of penance are a
little too indulgent, not to say lax, in this matter.
If anyone has inflicted a bodily injury on another
see how severely the justice of the law punishes the
Upon Hasty Judgments 93
outrage. In olden days the law of retaliation de-
manded an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
If a man stole the goods of another he was con-
demned to the galleys, or even to the gibbet. But
in the case of slander, unless, as I have said, it be
of the most highly aggravated kind, there is
scarcely a thought of making reparation, even by a
courteous apology. Yet those who sit in high
places value their reputation much more than
riches, or life itself, seeing that among all natural
blessings, honour undoubtedly holds the first rank.
Since, then, we cannot gain admittance into heaven
without having restored that which belongs to
another, let the slanderer consider how he can pos-
sibly hope for an entrance there unless he re-
establishes his neighbour’s reputation, which he
tried to destroy by detraction.
Upon Hasty JUDGMENTS.
Our Blessed Father insisted most earnestly upon
the difference which exists between a vice and sin,
reproving those who spoke of a person who had
committed one or more grave faults as vicious.
‘“ Virtuous habits,’ he would say, ‘‘ not being
destroyed by One act contrary to them, a man can-
not be branded as intemperate because he has once
been guilty of intemperance.’’
Thus when he heard anyone condemned as bad
because he had committed a bad act, he took pains
with his accustomed gentleness to modify the
charge by making a distinction between vice and
sin, the former being a habit, the latter an isolated
act.
“ Vice,” he said, ‘‘ is a habit, sin, the outcome
94 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of that habit; and just as one swallow does not
make a summer, so one act of sin does not make a
person vicious. That is to say, it does not render
him a sinner in the sense of being steeped in and
wholly given over to the dominion of the particular
vice, the act of which he has committed once, or
even more than once.”’
Being asked whether in conformity with this
principle it would not be equally wrong to praise
anyone fora single act of virtue, as if that virtue
were his or her constant habit, he replied: ‘* You
must remember that we are forbidden to judge our
neighbour in the matter of the evil which he may
appear to do, but notin the good. On the contrary,
we may and should suppose that he has the good
habit from which the act seen by us naturally
springs. Nor can we err in such a supposition,
since the very perfection of charity consists in its
excess. But when we judge evil of others, our
tongue is like the lancet in the surgeon’s hand, and
you know how careful he must be not to pierce an
artery in Opening a vein. We must only judge
from what we see. We may say that a man has
blasphemed and sworn, if we have heard him do so;
but we may not in that account alone say that he is
a blasphemer; that is, that he has contracted the
habit of blasphemy, substituting the vice for the
sin.”
The objection was raised that it would follow that
we must never attempt to judge whether a person
is or is not in a state of grace, however holy his
life may seem to be; since no one knows whether
he is worthy of love or of hate, and least of all we,
who know our neighbour far less intimately than
Upon Ridiculing Ones Neighbour 95
= he knows himself. To this he replied, that if faith,
according to St. James, is known by its works,*
much more is charity so known, since it is a more
active virtue, its works being the sparks from see-
ing which we learn that its fire is still burning some-
where. And though when we saw a sin, which is
undoubtediy mortal, being committed, we might
have said that the sinner was no longer in a state
of grace, how do we know that a moment after-
wards God may not have touched his heart, and that
he may not have been converted from his evil ways
by an act of contrition? This is why we must
always fear to judge evil of others, but as regards
judging well, we are free to do so as much as we
please. Charity grows more and more by hoping
all good of its neighbour, by thinking no evil, by
rejoicing in truth and goodness, but not in
iniquity.
Uron RIDICULING ONE’s NEIGHBOUR.
When in company he heard anyone being turned
into ridicule, he always showed by his countenance
that the conversation displeased him, and would try
to turn the subject by introducing some other.
When unsuccessful in this he would give the signal
to cease, as is done in tournaments when the com-
batants are becoming too heated, and thus put a
stop to the combat, crying: ‘‘ This is too much!
This is trampling too violently on the good man!
This is altogether going beyond bounds! Who
gives us the right to amuse ourselves thus at the
expense of another? How should we like to be
talked about like this, and to have our little weak-
*St. James ii. 17, 26.
96 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
nesses brought out, just to amuse anybody who may
chance to hear? To put up with our neighbour
and his imperfections is a great perfection, but it
is a great imperfection to laugh at him and his
short-comings.”’
He expresses himself to Philothea on the same
subject as follows:
‘“ A tendency to ridicule and mock at others is
one of the worst possible conditions of mind. God
hates this vice exceedingly, as He has often shown
by the strange punishments which have awaited it.
Nothing is so contrary to charity, and still more so
to devotion, as contempt and disparagement of our
neighbour. Now derision and ridicule are always
simply contempt, so that the learned are justified
in saying that to mock at our neighbour is the worst
kind of injury that we can by mere word inflict on
him; because all other words of disparagement are
compatible with some degree of esteem for the
person injured, but ridicule is essentially the ex-
pression of contempt and disdain.’’*
Now Holy Scripture pronounces woe upon those
who despise others, and threatens them with being
despised themselves. God always takes the part of
the despised against the despiser. Our Lord says:
He who despises you, despises Me;t and speaking
of little children, Take heed that you despise not
one of them.t And Almighty God in comforting
Moses for an insult offered to the great law-giver
by the Children of Israel, says: They have not
despised you, but Me.
On one occasion when Blessed Francis was
present some young lady in the company was ridi-
*The Devout Life. Part iii. c. 27, tTLuke x. 16.
tMatt. xviii. ro.
Upon Ridiculing Ones Neighbour 97
= culing another who was conspicuously ill-favoured.
Defects born with her were what were being
laughed over. He gently reminded the speaker
that it is God Who has made us and not we our-
selves and that all His works are perfect. But the
latter assertion only making her jeer the more, he
ended by saying: “‘ Believe me, I know for a fact
her soul is more upright, more beautiful, and better
_ formed than you can possibly have any conception
of.’ This silenced her and sent her away abashed.
On another occasion he heard some people laugh-
ing at a poor hump-back who was absent at the time.
= Our Blessed Father instantly took up his defence,
_ quoting again those words of Scripture: The works
of God are perfect. “What!” exclaimed one of
the company. ‘‘ Perfect! and yet deformed!’
= Blessed Francis replied pleasantly: ‘‘ And do you
_ really think that there cannot be perfect hunch-
_ backs, just as much as others are perfect because
_ gracefully made and straight as a dart!’ In fine,
_ when they tried to make him explain what perfec-
' tion he meant, whether outward or inward, he said:
‘““ Enough. What I tell you is true; let us talk of
_ something better.”
Upon CONTRADICTING OTHERS.
-There is no kind of disposition more displeasing
| to men than one which is obstinate and contradic-
| tory. People of this sort are pests of conversation,
firebrands in social intercourse, sowers of discord.
_ Like hedgehogs and horse-chestnuts, they have
prickles all over them, and cannot be handled. On
the other hand, a gentle, pliable, condescending
disposition, which is ready to give way to others,
G
98 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
is a living charm. It is like the honeycomb which
attracts every sort of fly; it becomes everybody’s
master, because it makes itself everybody’s servant;
being all things to all men, it wins them all.
People of a peevish, morose disposition soon find
themselves left alone in a mighty solitude; they are
avoided like thistles which prick whoever touches
them. Our Blessed Father always spoke with the
highest praise of the dictum of St. Louis, that we
should never speak evil of anyone, unless when by
our silence we should seem to hold with him in his
wrong-doing, and so give scandal to others.
The holy King did not inculcate this from
motives of worldly prudence, which he detested;
nor was he following the maxim of that pagan Em-
peror, who declared that no one, in quitting the
presence of his Sovereign, should ever be suffered
to go away dissatisfied, a saying dictated by cun-
ning and with the object of teaching his fellow-
potentates to win men by fair words. No, St. Louis
was travelling by a very different road, and spoke
in a truly Christian spirit, desiring only to hinder
disputes and contentions, and to follow the advice
af St. Paul, who wishes that we should avoid con-
tentions and strivings.* But if, when it is in our
power to do so, we do not openly condemn the fault
or error of another, will not that be a sort of con-
nivance at, andconsequently a participation in, the
wrong-doing? Our Blessed Father answers that
difficulty thus: ‘‘ When it is a question of contra-
dicting another, and of setting your opinion against
his, it must be done with the utmost gentleness and
tact, and without any desire to wound the feelings
*Titus iii. Q.
Upon Contradicting Others 99
of the other; for nothing is gained by taking things
ill-temperedly.”’
If you irritate a horse by teasing him he will, if
he has any mettle, take the bit between his teeth
and carry you just where he pleases. But when you
slacken the rein he stops and becomes tractable.
So it is with the mind of another; if you
force it to assent, you humble it; if you humble
it, you irritate it; if you irritate it, you utterly
lose hold of it. The mind may be per-
suaded; it cannot be constrained; to force it
to believe is to force it from all belief. Is mildness
come upon us? says David; then are we cor-
rected.* The Spirit of God, gentle and sweet, is
in the soft refreshing zephyrs, not in the whirlwind,
nor in the tempest. It is God’s enemy, the devil,
who is called a spirit of contradiction; and such
human beings as imitate him share his title.
Upon LOVING OUR ENEMIES.
Some one having complained to Blessed Francis
of the difficulty he found in obeying the christian
precept commanding us to love our enemies, he re-
plied: ‘‘ As for me, I know not how my heart is
made, or how it happens that God seems to have
been pleased to give me lately altogether a new one.
Certain it is that I not only find no difficulty in prac-
tising this precept; but I take such pleasure in doing
it, and experience so peculiar and delightful a sweet-
ness in it, that if God had forbidden me to love
my enemies I should have had great difficulty in
obeying Him.
It seems to me that the very contradiction and
*Psalm Ixxxix. ro.
100 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
opposition we meet with from our fellow-men ought
to rouse our spirit to love them more, for they serve
as a whetstone to sharpen our virtue.
Aloes make honey seem sweeter; and wine has
a more delicious flavour if we drink it after having
eaten bitter almonds. It is true that mostly a little
conflict and struggle goes on in our minds; but in
the end it will surely come to pass with us what the
Psalmist commands when he says: Be angry and
sin not.*
What! Shall we not bear with those whom God
Himself bears with? We who have ever before our
eyes the great example of Jesus Christ on the Cross
praying for His enemies. And then, too, our
enemies have not crucified us; they have not perse-
cuted us, even to death; we have not yet resisted
unto blood.
Again, who would not love this dear enemy for
whom Jesus Christ prayed? For whom He died?
For, mark it well, He prayed not only for those who
crucified Him, but also for those who persecute
us, and Himin us. As He testified to Saul when
He cried out to Him: Why persecutest thou Me ?+
That is to say, Me in My members.
We are not, indeed, obliged to love the vices of
our enemy; his hatred of good, the enmity which
he bears us; for all these things are displeasing to
God, Whom they offend; but we must separate
the sin from the sinner, the precious from the vile,
if we desire to be like our Saviour.”’
He did not admit the maxim of the world: ‘‘ We
must not trust a reconciled enemy.” In his opinion
the exact contrary of this dictum is more in accord-
ance with truth.
*Psalm iv. 5. TAC iX 4
Upon Forgiving our Enemes 101
He used to say that “‘ fallings out” in the case
of friends only serve to draw the bonds of friendship
closer, just as the smith makes use of water to in-
crease the heat of his fire. He added, asa well-
known fact in surgery, that the callosity which
forms over a fractured bone is so dense that the
limb will never break again at that particular place.
Indeed, when a reconciliation has taken place be-
tween two persons hitherto at variance, it is almost
certain that each will set to work, perhaps even un-
consciously, to make the newly-cemented friendship
firmer. The offender by avoiding further offence,
and atoning as far as possible for what is past, and
the offended person by endeavouring in a truly
generous spirit to bury that past in oblivion.
Upon FORGIVING OUR ENEMIES.
On the subject of the forgiveness of enemies,
Blessed Francis told me of an incident which
occurred at Padua (possibly at the time that he was
studying there). It appears that certain of the
students at that university had a bad habit of prowl-
ing about the streets at night, pistol in hand, chal-
lenging passers-by with the cry of “ Who goes
there?” and firing if they did not-receive a humble
and civil answer.
One of the gang having one night challenged a
fellow-student and received no answer, fired, and
took such good aim that the poor young man fell
dead on the pavement. Horrified and amazed at the
fatal result of his mad prank, the student fled,
hoping to hide from justice.
The first open door that he saw was that of the
dwelling of a good widow, whose son was his friend
102 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and fellow-student. Hastily entering, he implored
her to hide him in some safe place, confessing what
he had done, and that, should he be taken, all was
over with him.
The good woman shut him into a little room,
secret and safe, and there left him. Not many
minutes had elapsed before a melancholy proces-
sion approached, and the dead body of her son was
brought into the house, the bearers telling the dis-
tracted mother in what manner he had been killed,
and after a little questioning, giving the name of
the youth who had shot her child.
Weeping and broken-hearted, she hurried to the
place where she had hidden the wretched homicide,
and it was from her lips that he learned who it was
that he had deprived of life.
In an agony of shame and grief, tearing his hair,
and calling upon death to strike him down, too, he
threw himself on his knees before the poor mother;
not, indeed, to ask her pardon, but to entreat her to
give him up to justice, wishing to expiate publicly
a crime so barbarous.
The widow, a most devout and merciful woman,
was deeply touched by the youth’s repentance, and
saw clearly that it was thoughtlessness and not mali-
cious intent that had been the moving spring of the
deed. She then assured him that, provided he
would ask pardon of God and change his way of
life, she would keep her promise and help him to
escape. This she did, and by so doing imitated the
gentle kindness of the prophet who spared the lives
of the Syrian soldiers who had come to murder him,
he having them in his power in the midst of
Samaria.*
*4 Rege Vi. 12523
Upon the virtue of Condescension 103
So pleasing to God was this poor widow’s
clemency and forgiveness that He permitted the
soul of her murdered son to appear to her, revealing
to her that her pardon, granted so readily and
sweetly to the man who had unintentionally been
his murderer, had obtained for his soul deliverance
from Purgatory, in which place he would otherwise
have been long detained.
How blessed are the merciful! They shall obtain
mercy both for themselves and for others!
UPON THE VIRTUE OF CONDESCENSION.
I will give you our Blessed Father’s views on
this subject, first reminding you how unfailingly
patient he was with the humours of others, hew
gentle and forbearing at all times towards his
neighbour, and how perseveringly he inculcated
the practice of this virtue, not only upon the
Daughters of the Visitation, but upon all his
spiritual children.
He often said to me: ‘‘Oh, how much better
it would be to accommodate ourselves to others
rather than to want to bend every one to our own
ways and opinions! The human mind is like pulp,
which takes readily any colour mixed with it. The
great thing is to take care that it be not like the
chameleon, which, one after the other, takes every
colour except white. Condescension, if unaccom-
panied by frankness and purity, is dangerous, and
much to be avoided.
It is right to take compassion upon sinners, but
it must be with the intention of extricating them
from the mire, not of slothfully leaving them to
rot and perish in it. It is a perverted sort of
104 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
mercy to look at our neighbour, sunk in the misery
of sin, and not venture to extend to him the helping
hand of a gentle but out-spoken remonstrance. We
must condescend in everything, but only up to the
altar steps; that is to say, not beyond the point
at which condescension would be a sin, and un-
deserving of its name. I do not say that we must
at every instant reprove the sinner. Charitable
prudence demands that we rather wait the moment
when he is capable of assimilating the remedies
suitable for his malady, and till God shall give to
his hearing joy and gladness, and the bones that
have been humbled shall rejoice.* ‘Turbulent zeal,
zeal that is neither moderate nor wise, pulls down
in place of building up. There are some who do
no good at all, because they wish to do things too
well, and who spoil everything they try to mend.
We must make haste slowly, as the ancient proverb
says. He who walks hurriedly is apt to fall. We
must be prudent both in reproving others and in
condescending to them. The King’s honour loveth
judgment.’ +
How BLESSED FRANCIS ADAPTED HIMSELF TO
TIMES, PLACES, AND CIRCUMSTANCES.
When the Chablais was restored to the Duke of
Savoy, Bishop de Granier, the predecessor of our
Holy Founder, eager to further the design of His
Highness to bring back into the bosom of the
Roman Church the population that had been led
astray, sent to it a number of labourers to gather
in the harvest. Among these, one of the first to
be chosen was our Saint, at that time Provost of
*Psalm l. 10. tPsalm xcviii. 4.
How Blessed Francis, £c. 105
the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Geneva, and
consequently next in dignity to the Bishop.
With him were sent some Canons, Parish
Priests, and others. Several members of various
Religious Orders also presented themselves, eager
to be employed in this onerous, if honourable,
mission.?
It would be impossible to give a just idea of the
labours of these missionaries, or of the obstacles
which they encountered at the outset of their holy
enterprise. The spirit of Blessed Francis was,
however, most flexible and accomodating, and
greatly tended to further the work of the people’s
conversion.
He was like the manna which assimilated itself
to the palate of whoever tasted it: he made himself
all things to all men that he might gain all for
Jesus Christ.
In his ordinary mode of conversation and in his
dress, which was mean and common, he produced
a much less jarring effect upon the minds and eyes
of these people than did the members of Religious
Orders with their various habits and diversities.
He, as well as the secular Priests who worked
under him, sometimes even condescended so far
as to wear the short cloaks and high boots usual in
the country, so as more easily to gain access to
private houses, and not to offend the eyes of the
people by the sight of the cassock, which they were
unaccustomed to. To this pious stratagem the
members of Religious Orders were unwilling to
have recourse, their distinctive habit being, in their
opinion, almost essential to their profession, or at
1M. Camus must have been misinformed. St. Francis
had but few fellow-workers in the early years of his
mission in the Chablais. [Ed.]
106 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
least so fitting that it might never lawfully be laid
aside.
Our Blessed Father went on quite a different
tack, and caught more flies with a spoonful of the
honey which he was so much in the habit of using,
than did all the others with their harsher methods.
Everything about him, whether external or in-
ternal, breathed the spirit of conciliation: all his
words, gestures, and ways were those of kindliness.
Some wished to make themselves feared; but he
desired only to be loved, and to enter men’s hearts
through the doorway of affection. On this account,
whether he spoke in public or in private, he was
always more attentively listened to than anyone else.
However much the Protestants might attack him
and purposely provoke him, he, on his side, ever
dealt with them in a spirit absolutely free from
contention, abstaining from anything likely to give
offence, having often on his lips those beautiful
words of the Apostle: If any man seem to be con-
tentious, we have no such custom, nor the Church
of God.*
To come now to the particulars which I promised
you, let me tell you how our Blessed Father, having
read in St. Augustine’s works and in those of other
ancient Fathers that in the early centuries Christian
Priests, in addressing heretics and schismatics, did
not hesitate to call them their brethren, inferred
that he might quite lawfully follow so great an
example.
By doing so he conciliated these people to such
an extent that they flocked to hear him, and were
charmed with the sweetness and gentleness of his
discourses, the outcome of his overflowing kind-
*: Cor. xi. 16.
How Blessed Francis, &c. 107
liness of heart. This mode of expression was,
however, so offensive to preachers who were in the
habit of speaking of heretics as rebels against the
light, uncircumcised of heart, etc., that they called
a meeting, in which they resolved to remonstrate
with the Provost (Blessed Francis), and to represent
to him that, though he meant well, he was in reality
ruining the cause of Catholics.
They insisted that he was flattering the pride so
inherent in heresy, that he was lulling the people
to sieep in their errors by sewing pillows to their
elbows; that it was better to correct them in mercy
and justice than to pour on their heads the oil of
wheedling, as they called the kindliness of our
Saint.
He received their remonstrances pleasantly, and
even respectfully, without defending himself in any
way, but, on the contrary, appearing to yield to
their zeal, albeit somewhat sadly and unwillingly.
Finding, however, that he did not begin to act upon
their suggestions, as they had promised themselves
he would do, some of them sent a written appeal
to the Bishop, representing to him that he would
have to recall the Provost and his companion
missioners, who with their unwise and affected
levity ruined in one day more souls than they
themselves could convert in a month.
They went on to compare the labour of the mis-
sioners to Penelope’s web: to say that our Saint
preached more like a Huguenot pastor than a
Catholic Priest, and, in fine, that he went so far
as to call the heretics his brethren, a thing so
scandalous that the Protestants had already con-
ceived great hope of bringing him over to their
Own party.
108 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
The good Bishop, however, better informed as
to the real state of the case, paid little heed to this
appeal, dictated by a bitter zeal, rather than by the
(jue science of the Saints. Hes merely exhorted
each one to persevere, and to remember that every
spirit should praise the Lord according to the
talents committed to it by God.
Our Blessed Father, being informed of these
complaints made against him to his Bishop,
would not defend himself, but commended his
cause to the judgment of God, and, silently
but hopefully, awaited the result. Nor was his
expectat‘on disappointed, for experience soon
showed that the too ardent eagerness of these
zealots was more likely to delay than to advance
the work.
To crown all this, the preachers who had objected
to his method had ere long themselves to be set
aside as unfit.
On one occasion when I was talking with him
and had turned the conversation on this subject,
he said to me: ‘‘ These good people looked through
coloured spectacles. They saw all things of the
same hue as their own glasses. My predecessor
soon found out who were the real hindrances to the
conversion of the Protestant Cantons.”
On my asking him how he could in reason apply
the term ‘‘ brethren ’’ to persons who certainly are
not such, since no one can have God for his Father
who has not the Catholic Church for his mother,
and since, therefore, those who are not in her bosom
cannot be our brethren, he said to me: ‘‘ Ah! but
I never call them brethren without adding the
epithet erring, a word which marks the distinction
with sufficient clearness.
How Blessed Francis, ec. 109
Besides, they are in fact our brethren by Bap-
tism, which they duly administer and receive.
Moreover, they are our brethren according to the
flesh, for are we not all children of Adam? Then,
too, we are fellow citizens, and subjects of the same
earthly prince. Is not that enough to constitute a
kind of fraternity between us?
Lastly, I look upon them as children of the
Church, at least in disposition, since they are will-
ing to be instructed; and as my brethren in hope,
since they also are called to inherit eternal life.
In the early days of the Church it was customary
to give the title of brethren to catechumens, even
before their baptism.”
These reasons satisfied me and made me esteem
highly the ingenious method suggested to him by
the Holy Spirit to render these unruly and untaught
souls docile and tractable.
UPON THE DEFERENCE DUE TO OUR INFERIORS
AND DEPENDENTS.
Blessed Francis not only taught, but practised
deference and a certain obedience towards his
inferiors; towards his flock, towards his fellow
citizens, and even towards his servants. He obeyed
his body servant in what concerned his rising, his
going to bed, and his toilet, as if he himself had
been the valet and the other the master.
When he sat up far into the night either to study
or to write letters, he would beg his servant to go
to bed, for fear of tiring him by keeping him wp.
The man would grumble at his request, as if he
were being taken for a lazy, sleepy-headed fellow.
Our Blessed Father patiently put up with grum-
110 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
blings of the sort, but would complete what he had
in hand as quickly as possible, so as not to keep
the man waiting.
One summer morning Blessed Francis awoke
very early, and, having some important matter on
his mind, called this servant to bring him some
necessaries for his toilet. The man, however,
was too sound asleep to be roused by his master’s
voice. The good Prelate therefore, on rising,
looked into the adjoining room, thinking that the
man must have left it, but finding him fast asleep,
and fearing to do him harm by waking him sud-
denly, dressed without his assistance and betook
himself to his prayers, studies, and writing. Later
the servant awoke, and dressed, and, coming to
his master’s room, to his surprise found him deep
in his studies. The man asked him abruptly how
he had managed without him. ‘I fetched every-
thing myself,” replied the holy Prelate. “Am I
not old enough and strong enough for that?”
‘“ Would it have been too much trouble to call
me?’’ said the man grumblingly. ‘“‘ No, indeed,
my child,” said Blessed Francis, ‘‘and I assure
you that I did call you several times; but at last,
thinking that you must have gone out, I got up
to see where you were, and, finding you sleeping
profoundly, I had not the heart to wake you.”
“ You have the heart, it seems, to turn me into
ridicule,” retorted the man. ‘‘ Oh, no, my friend,”
said Francis. ‘‘I was only telling you what
happened, without a thought of either blaming you
or making fun of you. Come, I promise you that
for the future I will never stop calling you till you
awake.”
Upon the way to treat servants 111
Upon THE WAY TO TREAT SERVANTS.
His opinion was that masters, as a rule, commit
many grave faults with regard to their servants,
by treating them with harshness and severity. Such
conduct is quite unworthy of christians, and, in
them, worse even than the behaviour of pagans in
olden times to their slaves.
He himself never uttered an angry or threatening
word to any one of his domestics. When they
committed a fault, he corrected them so mildly that
they were ready at once to make amends and to do
better, out of love to their good master rather than
from fear of him.
Once, when I was talking to him on this subject,
I quoted the saying that ‘‘ Familiarity breeds con-
tempt, and contempt hatred.” ‘‘ Yes,” he said,
‘improper familiarity, but never civil, cordial,
kindly, virtuous familiarity; for as that proceeds
from love, love engenders its like, and true love is
never without esteem, nor, consequently, without
respect for the object loved, seeing that love is
founded wholly on the estimation in which the thing
or person beloved is held. You know the saying
of the ancient tyrant: Let them hate me, provided
that they fear me. Speaking on this subject, we
may well reverse the motto and say: Let them
despise me, provided only that they love me. For
if this contempt produces love, love after a while
will stifle contempt, and sooner or later will in its
place put respect; since there is no one that one
reverences more, or has a greater fear of offending,
than a person whom one loves in truth and sincerity
of heart.”
112 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
With regard to this, he told me a story. which he
alludes to in his Philothea. Blessed Elzéar, Comte
d’Arian, in Provence, was so exceedingly gentle in
his treatment of his servants that they looked upon
him as a person positively deficient in understand-
ing, and behaved in his presence with the greatest
incivility and insolence, knowing well his persever-
ing tolerance of injuries and his boundless patience.
His wife, the saintly Delphina, feeling more acutely
than he the disrespectful conduct of their servants,
complained of it to him, saying that the menials
absolutely laughed in his face. ‘‘ And if they do,”
he answered, ‘‘ why should I be put out by these
little familiarities, pleasantries, and bursts of mer-
riment, seeing that I am quite certain they do not
hate me? They have not yet struck me, spat in
my face, or offered me any of those indignities
which Jesus Christ our Lord suffered at the hands
of the high priest’s servants, and not alone from
those who scourged Him, derided Him, and cruci-
fied Him. Is it fitting that I, who glory in being
the servant of Jesus Christ crucified, should desire
to be better treated than my Master? Does it
become a member to complain of any hardship
under a Head wearing no crown but one of thorns?
All that you tell me is but a mere jest compared
with the insults heaped upon our divine Lord.
The contempt of my servants—if, indeed, they do
despise me—is a splendid lesson, teaching me to
despise myself. How shall we practise humility if
not on such occasions as these? ”
Our Blessed Father went on to say: “I
have proposed this example rather for your
admiration than for your imitation, and that you
Another instance, £c. 113
may see of what means holy love makes use, in the
hearts which are its own, in order to lead them to
find rest in the very things which trouble those who
are less devout. What I would say on the subject
of servants is this; that, after all, they are our
fellow-men and our humble brethren, whom charity
obliges us to love as ourselves. Come, then, let
us love them as ourselves, these dear yoke-fellows,
who are so closely bound to us, who live under the
same roof, and eat and drink of our substance.
Let us treat them like ourselves, or as we should
wish to be treated if we were in their place, and of
their condition in life. That is the best way to deal
with servants.’’
ANOTHER INSTANCE OF BLESSED FRANCIS’
GENTLENESS WITH HIS OWN SERVANTS.
Like master, like man. Not only were all our
Blessed Father’s servants virtuous (he would not
have suffered any who were not, to form part of his
household), but, following their master’s example,
they were all singularly gentle and obliging in their
manners and behaviour.
One of them, a young man, handsome, virtuous,
and pious, was greatly sought after by many of
the citizens, who thought he would prove a most
desirable son-in-law, and to this end they encour-
aged his intercourse with their daughters. About
the several advantageous matches proposed to him
he always used to tell the Bishop. One day the
latter said to him, ‘* My dear son, your soul is as
dear to me as my own, and there is no sort of
advantage that I do not desire for you and would
not procure for you if I could. That you know
H
14 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
very well, and you know, too, that it is possibly
only your youth that dazzles the eyes of certain
young girls and makes them want you for their
husband; but I am of opinion that more age and
| experience is needed before you take upon yourself
the cares of a family. Think well over the matter,
for when once embarked it will be too late to repent
of what you have done.
Marriage is an Order in which the profession
must be made before the novitiate; if there were
a year’s probation, as there is in the cloister, there
would be very few professions. After all, what
have I done to you to make you wish to leave me?
I am old, I shall soon die, and then you can dispose
of yourself as you please. I shall bequeath you
to my brother, who will provide for you quite as
advantageously as these proposed matches would
have done.”
He said this with tears in his eyes, which so
distressed the young man that he threw himself
at the Bishop’s feet, asking his pardon for having
even thought of quitting him, and renewing his
protestations of fidelity and of determination to
serve him in life and death.
““ No, no, my son,” he replied; “‘ I have no wish
to interfere with your liberty. I would, on the
contrary, purchase it, like St. Paul, at the cost of
my own. But I am giving you friendly advice,
such as I would offer to my own brother were he
of your age.” And in very truth he treated the
members of his household, not as servants, but
as his brothers and children. He was their
elder brother or their father, rather than their
The holy Bishop never refused, dc. 115
THE HOLY BISHOP NEVER REFUSED WHAT WAS
ASKED OF HIM.
He practised to the letter the divine precept:
Give to him who asketh of thee,* though, indeed,
he possessed so few earthly goods that it was a
standing marvel to me how he could give away as
much as he did! Truly, I believe that God often
multiplied the little which was really in his hands.
As regards heavenly goods, he was lavish of
them to all who came to him as petitioners. He
never refused spiritual consolation or advice either
in public or in private, and his readiness to supply
abundantly and spontaneously this mystical bread
of life and wisdom was surprising. His alertness
when requested to preach was also peculiarly
remarkable, as his action was naturally heavy,
and his habit of thought, as well as his enunciation,
somewhat slow.
On one occasion, in Paris, he was asked to preach
on a certain day, and readily consented to do so.
One of his attendants then reminded him that he
was engaged to preach elsewhere on the same day.
‘“ No matter,” the Bishop replied, ‘‘ God will give
us grace to multiply our bread. He is rich towards
all who invoke Him.’’+ His servant next remarked
that some care was surely due to his health.
“ What!” exclaimed Blessed Francis, ‘‘ do you
think that if God gives us the grace to find matter
for preaching, He will not at the same time take
care of the body, the organ by means of which His
doctrine is proclaimed? Let us put our trust in
Him, and He will give us all the strength we need.”
*Matt. v. 3% tRom. x. 12.
116 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
‘ But,” objected the other, ‘‘ does God forbid us
to take care of our health ? ”
“ By no means,’’ answered the Bishop; ‘‘ but
He does forbid a want of confidence in His good-
ness . . . and,” he added seriously and firmly,
‘“were I requested to preach a third sermon on that
same day, it would cost me less both in mind and
body to consent than to refuse. Should we not
be ready to sacrifice, and even, as it were,
to obliterate ourselves, body and soul, for the
benefit of that dear neighbour of ours whom our
Lord loved so much as even to die for him? ”
Upon ALMSGIVING.
Our Blessed Father had, as we know, so high
an idea of the virtue of charity, which, indeed, he
said was only christian perfection under another
name, that he disliked to hear almsgiving called
charity. It was, he said, like putting a royal crown
on the head of a village maiden.
In answer to my objection that this was actually
the case with Esther, who, though only a slave,
was chosen by Assuerus to be his queen, and
crowned by his royal hand, he replied: “ You only
strengthen my argument, for Esther would have
remained in her state of servitude had she not be-
come the spouse of Assuerus, and, queen though
she was, she only wore her crown dependently on
his will and pleasure. So almsgiving is only pleas-
ing to God, and worthy of its reward, the heavenly
crown of justice, in as far as it proceeds from
charity, and is animated by that royal gift which
converts it into an infused and supernatural virtue,
which may be called either almsgiving in charity
Upon Almsgiving 117
or charitable almsgiving. But, just as the two
natures, the divine and the human, were not merged
in one another in the mystery of the Incarnation,
although joined in the unity of the hypostasis of
the Word, so this conjunction of charity with alms-
giving, or this subordination of almsgiving to
charity, does not change the one into the other,
the object of each being as different as is the Creator
from the creature. For the object of almsgiving
is the misery of the needy which it tries as far as
possible to relieve, and that of charity is God, Who
is the sovereign Good, worthy to be loved above
all things for His own sake.’’ ‘‘ But,’’ I said,
“when almsgiving is practised for the love of God,
can we not then call it charity?” ‘‘ No,” he
replied, ‘‘ not any more than you can call Esther
Assuerus, and Assuerus Esther. But you can,
as I have said above, call it alms given in charity,
or charitable almsgiving.
Almsgiving and charity are quite different, for
not only may alms be given without charity, but
even against charity, as when they are given know-
ing they will lead to sin.”
In a remarkable passage in Theotimus the Saint
asks: “‘ Were there not heretics, who, to exalt
charity towards the poor, deprecated charity to-
wards God, ascribing man’s whole salvation to
almsdeeds, as St. Augustine witnesses ? ’’*
OUR SAINT’S HOPEFULNESS IN REGARD TO THE
CONVERSION OF SINNERS.
Our Blessed Father was always full of tender-
ness, compassion, and gentleness towards sinners,
but he regarded and treated them in different
Love of God. B. xi. c. 14.
118 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
ways according to their various dispositions.
A sinner who had grown old in evil, who clung
obstinately to his wicked ways, who laughed to
scorn all remonstrances, and gloried in his shame,
formed a spectacle so heart-breaking and so appall-
ing to the holy Bishop, that he shrank from con-
templating it. When he had succeeded in turning
his thoughts to some other subject, on their being
suddenly recalled to it, he would shudder as if a
secret wound had been touched, and utter some
devout and fervent ejaculation such as this: ‘‘ Ah!
Lord, command that this blind man see!
Speak the word only, and he shall be healed!
Oh, my God, those who forsake Thee shall be
forsaken ; convert him, and he shall be converted ! ”’
With obstinate sinners of this class his patience
was unwearied. For such, he said, God Himself
waited patiently, even until the eleventh hour;
adding that impatience was more likely to embitter
them and retard their conversion than remonstrance
to edify them.
For the sinner who was more open to conviction,
and was not so obstinate in his malice, for him
who had, that is to say, lucid intervals in his mad-
ness, Blessed Francis had the most tender affection,
regarding him as a poor paralytic waiting on the
edge of the pool of healing for some helping hand
to plunge him into it. To such he behaved as did
the good shepherd of the Gospel, Who left the
ninety-nine sheep in the desert to seek after the
hundredth which had gone astray.
But towards the sinner when once converted,
how describe his attitude of mind! He
regarded him not as a brand snatched from
. Our Saint's hopefulness, ke. 119
the burning, not as a bruised reed, not as an
extinguished taper that was still smoking, but as
a sacred vessel filled with the oil of grace, as one
of those trees which the ancients looked upon as
holy because they had been struck by fire from
Heaven. It was marvellous to observe the honour
which he paid to such a one, the esteem in which
he held him, the praises which he bestowed upon
him.
He always considered that souls delivered by God
from the mouth of the roaring lion were in con-
sequence likely to be more vigilant, more courage-
ous in resisting temptation, and more careful in
guarding against relapses.
He did all he could to cover the faults of others,
his goodness of heart being so great that he never
allowed himself to think ill even of the wicked. He
attributed their sinfulness to the violence of tempta-
tion and the infirmity of human nature. When
faults were public and so manifest that they could
not be excused, he would say: ‘‘ Who knows but
that the unhappy soul will be converted? The
greatest sinners often become the greatest penitents,
as we see in the case of David. And who are we
that we should judge our brother? Were it not
for the grace of God we should perhaps do worse
than he.”
He never allowed the conversion of a sinner to
be despaired of, hoping on till death. ‘‘ This life,”
he said, “‘ is our pilgrim way, in which those who
now stand may fall, and those who have fallen
may, by grace, be set on their feet again.” Nor
even after death would he tolerate an unfavourable
judgment being passed on any.
120 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
His reason for this was that as the original grace
of justification was not given by way of merit, so
neither could the grace of final perseverance be
merited.
With regard to this subject he related to me an
amusing incident which occurred whilst he was a
missioner in the Chablais. Amongst the Priests
and Religious who were sent to help him was one
of a humorous temperament, and who did not
hesitate to show that he was so, even in the pulpit.
One day, when preaching before our Blessed
Prelate against the heresiarch* who had raised the
standard of revolt in Geneva, he said that we should
never condemn any one as lost after death, except
such as are by Scripture denounced; no, not even
the said heresiarch who had caused so much evil
by his errors. ‘‘ For,” he went on to say, ‘‘ who
knows but that God may have touched his heart
at the last moment and converted him? It is true
that out of the Church and without the true faith
there is no salvation; but who can say that he did
not at the moment of death wish to be reunited
with the Catholic Church, from which he had
separated himself, and acknowledge in his heart
the truth of the belief he had combated, and that
thus he did not die sincerely repentant? ””
After having surprised the congregation by these
remarks, he most unexpectedly concluded by say-
ing: “ We must certainly entertain sentiments of
boundless confidence in the goodness of God, Who
is infinite in mercy to those who invoke Him. Jesus
Christ even offered His peace, His love, and His
salvation to the traitor Judas, who betrayed Him
*Calvin.
Blessed Francis’ solicitude, &c. 131
by a kiss. Why, then, may He not have offered
the same favour to this unhappy heresiarch? Is
the arm of God shortened?
Yet, my brethren, he continued, “‘ believe me,
and I assure you I lie not, if this man is not damned
he has had the narrowest escape man ever had; and
if he has been saved from eternal wreck, he owes
to God the handsomest votive candle that a person
of his condition ever offered! ”
As you may imagine, this finale did not draw
many tears from the audience!
BLESSED FRANCIS’ SOLICITUDE FOR MALEFACTORS
CONDEMNED TO DEATH.
He often went to carry consolation to prisoners,
and sometimes accompanied condemned criminals
to the place of execution, that he might help them
to make a good death.
At such times, too, he kept to the methods we
have already described as used by him in his visiting
of the rest of the dying. After having made them
unburden their conscience, he left them a little
breathing space, and then at intervals suggested
to them acts of faith, hope, and charity, of repent-
ance, of resignation to the Will of God, and of
abandonment to His mercy; not adding to their
sufferings by importunity, long harangues, or end-
less exhortations.
So happily did the Blessed Prelate succeed in
this method of treatment, that sometimes the poor
criminals whom he accompanied to their execution
went to it as to a marriage feast, with joy and peace,
such as they had never experienced in the whole
122 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
course of their lawless and sinful lives, happier far
so to die than to live on as they had done. “‘ It is,”
he would say to them, “‘by lovingly kissing the
feet of God’s justice that we most surely reach the
embrace of His tender mercy.
Above all things, we must be confident that
they who trust in Him shall never be confounded.”
UPON THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT.
Blessed Francis’ extreme gentleness always led
him to lean towards indulgent judgment, however
slight in a particular case the apparent justification
might be.
On one occasion there was a discussion in his
presence as to the meaning of those terrible words
in the Gospel: Many are called, but few chosen.*
Some one said that the chosen were called
a little flock, whereas the unwise or reprobates were
spoken of as many in number, and so on. He
replied that, in his opinion, there would be very
few christians (meaning, of course, those who are
in the true Church, outside which there is no salva-
tion) who would be lost, “‘ because,’’ he said,
‘““ having the root of the true faith, the tree that
springs from it would sooner or later bear its fruit,
which is salvation, and awakening, as it were, from
death to life, they would become, through charity,
active and rich in good works.”’
When asked what, then, was the meaning of the
statement in the Gospel as to the small number of
the elect, he replied that in comparison with the rest
of the world, and with infidel nations, the number
of christians was very small, but that of that small
*Matt. xx. 16.
To love to be hated, dc. p23
number very few would be lost, in conformity to
that striking text, There is no condemnation for
those that are in Christ Jesus.* Which really
means that justifying grace is always being offered
them, and this grace is inseparable from a lively
faith and a burning charity. Add to this that
He who begins the work in us is He who likewise
perfects it. We may believe that the call to
christianity, which is the work of God, is always
a perfect work, and therefore leads of itself to the
end of all perfection, which is heavenly glory.
TO LOVE TO BE HATED, AND TO HATE TO BE LOVED.
This maxim of our Blessed Father’s seems
strange and altogether contrary to his sweet and
affectionate nature.
If, however, we look closely into it, we shall find
that it is full of the purest and most subtle love of
God.
When he said that we ought to love to be hated,
and hate to be loved, he was referring in the one case
to the love which is in and for God alone, and in
the other to that merely human love, which is full
of danger, which robs God of His due, and of
which, therefore, we should hate to be the object.
He expresses himself thus :
‘“ Those who have nothing naturally attractive
about them are very fortunate, for they are well
assured that the love which one bears them is excel-
lent, being all for God’s sake alone.’’
UPON OBEDIENCE.
Blessed Francis always said that the excellence
Rom. viii. I.
124 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of obedience consists not in doing the will of
a gentle, courteous superior, who commands rather
by entreaty than as one having authority, but in
bowing the neck beneath the yoke of one who is
harsh, stern, imperious, severe. He was, it is true,
desirous that those who had to judge and direct
souls should do so as fathers rather than as masters,
as, indeed, he did himself, but at the same time
he wished those in authority to be somewhat strict,
and those subject to them to be less sensitive and
selfish, and consequently less impatient, less refrac-
tory, and less given to grumbling than most men
are,
He used also to say that a rough file takes off
more rust and polishes iron better than a smooth
and less biting one, and that very many and very
heavy blows of the hammer are needed to temper
a keen sword blade.
“But,’? I said to him, when discussing this
subject, ‘‘as the most perfect obedience is that
which springs from love, ought not the command
to be given lovingly, so as to incite the subordinate
to a loving obedience?’ He answered: ‘‘ There
is a great deal of difference between the excellence
of obedience and its perfection.
| The excellence of a virtue has to do with its
nature; its perfection with the grace, or charity, in
which it is clothed. Now, here I am not speaking
of the supernatural perfection of obedience which
emanates most assuredly from the love of God; but
of its natural excellence, which is better tested by
harsh than by gentle commands.
Excessive indulgence on the part of parents
and superiors is only too often the cause of many
disorders.
Upon Obedience 125
‘“ More than this, even as regards the super-
natural perfection of obedience, it is very probable
that the harshness of the command given helps
its growth, and renders our love of God, which is
our motive in obeying, stronger, firmer, and more
generous. When a superior commands with over-
much gentleness and circumspection, besides the
fact that he compromises his authority and causes
it to be slighted, he so attracts and attaches his
inferior to himself that often unconsciously he robs
God of the devotedness which is His due. The
result is that the inferior obeys the man whom he
loves, and because he loves him, rather than God
in the man, and for the love of God alone.
On the other hand, harshness tests far better the
fidelity of a heart which loves God sincerely. For,
finding nothing pleasing in the command except
the sweetness of divine love, to which alone it yields
obedience, the perfection of that obedience becomes
the greater, since the intention is purer, more direct,
and more immediately turned to God. It was in
this spirit that David said that, for the sake of the
words of God—that is, of His law—he had kept
hard ways.’’* Our Blessed Father added this
simile to explain his meaning further :
‘“Obeying a harsh, irritating, and vexatious
superior is like drawing clear water from a spring
which flows through the jaws of a lion of bronze.
It is like the riddle of Samson, Out of the eater
came forth meat; it is hearing God’s voice, and
seeing God’s will alone in that of a superior, even
if the command be, asin the case of St. Peter, Kill
*PSaim. xè" 4.
126 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and eat ;* it is to say with Job, Although He should
kill me, I will trust in Him.” +t
UPON THE OBEDIENCE THAT MAY BE PRACTISED BY
SUPERIORS.
Asking him one day if it was possible for persons
in authority, whether in the world or in the cloister,
to practise the virtue of obedience, he replied:
‘Certainly, and they can do so far more perfectly
and more heroically than their subjects.”
Then, seeing my astonishment at this apparent
paradox, he went on to explain it in the following
manner: ‘* Those who are obliged either by precept
or by vow, which takes the place of precept, to
practise obedience, are, as a rule, subject only to
one superior. ‘Those, on the other hand, who are
in authority, are free to obey more widely, and
to obey even in commanding, because if they con-
sider that it is God Who puts them over the heads
of the others, and Who commands them to com-
mand those others, who does not see that even
their commanding is an act of obedience? This
kind of obedience may even be practised by princes
who have none but God set over them, and who
have to render an account of their actions to Him
alone. I may add that there is no power on earth
so sublime as not to have, at least in some respects,
another set over it. Christian kings render filial
obedience to the Roman Pontiff, and the sovereign
Pontiff himself submits to his confessor in the
Sacrament of Penance. But there is a still higher
degree of obedience*which even Prelates and the
greatest among men may practise. It is that which
*Acts x. 1g. fJob xri. as
An instance of our Saints Obedience 127
the Apostle counsels when he says: Be ye subject
to every human creature for God’s sake.* Who
for love of us not only became subject to the
Blessed Virgin and to St. Joseph, but made Him-
self obedient to death and to the death of the Cross,
submitting Himself in His Passion to the most sin-
ful and degraded of the earth, uttering not a cry,
even as a lamb under the hand of him who shears
it and slays it. It is by this universal obedience
to every creature that we become all things to all
men in order that we may win all to Jesus Christ.
It is by this that we take our neighbour, whoever
he may be, for our superior, becoming servants
for our Lord’s sake.”
AN INSTANCE OF OUR SAINT’S OBEDIENCE.
On one occasion, when the Duke of Savoy, being
pressed by many urgent public needs, had obtained
from the Pope a Brief empowering him to levy
contributions on the Church property in his
dominions, Blessed Francis, finding some slack-
ness and unwillingness on the part of the beneficed
clergy of the diocese to yield obedience to this
order, when he had called them together to settle
what was to be done, spoke with just indignation.
“ What! gentlemen,” he cried, ‘‘is it for us to
question and reason when two sovereigns concur
in issuing the same command? Is it for us, I say,
to scrutinize their counsels, and ask, Why are you
acting thus? Not only to the decrees of sovereign
courts, but even to the sentence of the most insig-
nificant judges appointed by God to decide differ-
ences in our affairs, we yield deference so far as
*, Peter ii. 13.
128 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
not to enquire into the motive of their decisions.
And here, where two oracles who have only to
render account to God of what orders they give,
speak, we set to work to enquire into their motives
and reasons as if we were charged to inves-
tigate their conduct. Assuredly, I will take no
part in such doings. Our virtue, indeed, lags sadly
behind that of those christians—only lay people
too—of whom St. Paul said that being wise them-
selves they gladly suffered bondage, stripes, every
sort of ill-usage from the foolish,* and of whom,
in another place, he says that they took with joy
the being stripped of their own goods, knowing
that they had a better and a lasting substance.f
And the Apostle, as you know, is speaking to men
who had been unjustly despoiled of their whole
property by robbers and tyrants, whereas you will
not give up a small fraction of yours to assist in
the public need of our good Prince, to whose zeal
we owe the re-establishment of the Catholic religion
in the three divisions of the Chablais, and whose
enemies are the adversaries of our faith! Is not
our Order the first of the three estates in a christian
kingdom? Is there anything more just than to
contribute of our wealth, together with our prayers,
towards the defence of our altars, of our lives, and
of our peace? The people are lavishing their sub-
stance and the nobility their blood for the same
cause. Remember the late wars, and tremble lest
your ingratitude and disobedi nce should plunge
you again into similar troubles.”
Adding example to precept, he paid so heavy a
tax upon a part of his own revenue that none could
*2 Cor. Xl. GQ, 20ra epee
Upon the love of holy poverty 129
say he did not practise what he preached, and all
those who had ventured to oppose him in the matter
were not only effectually silenced, but covered with
confusion and put to a just shame.
UPON THE LOVE OF HOLY POVERTY.
Godliness with contentment, says Holy Scripture,
is great gain.*
So content was the godliness of Blessed Francis
that, although deprived of the greater part of his
episcopal revenues, he was fully satisfied with the
little that was left to him.
After all, he would say, are not twelve hundred
crowns a handsome income for a Bishop? The
Apostles, who were far better Bishops than we are,
had nothing like that sum. It is not for us to fix
our own pay for serving God.
His love of poverty was truly striking. At
Annecy he lodged in a hired house, which was both
handsome and roomy, and in which the apartments
assigned to him as Bishop were very elegantly
furnished. He, however, took up his abode in an
uncomfortable little room, where there was hardly
any light at all, so that he could truly say with
Job: I have made my bed in darkness ;} or with
David: Night shall be my light in my pleasures ;t
or again, I am like a night raven in the house, or as
a sparrow all alone on the housetop.§
He called this little room, or, to speak more truly,
this sepulchre of a living man, Francis’ chamber,
while to that in which he received visitors, or gave
audience, he gave the name of the Bishop’s cham-
ber.
71 Tim. vi. 6. tJob. xvii. 13. [Ps. cxxxviii. 11, §Ps. ci. 8.
I
130 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Truly, the lover of holy poverty can always find a
means of practising it, even in the midst of riches.
Blessed Francis, indeed, always welcomed
poverty with a smiling countenance, though natu-
rally it be apt to cast a gloom and melancholy upon
the faces both of those who endure it and of those
who only dread it.
Involuntary poverty is surly and discontented, for
it is forced and against the will. Voluntary
poverty, on the contrary, is joyous, free, and light-
hearted. To show you how cheerfully and plea-
santly he talked on this subject, I will give you one
or two of his remarks.
Once, showing mea coat which had been patched
up for him, and which he wore under his cassock,
he said: ‘“ My people really work little miracles;
for out of an old garment they have made me this
perfectly new coat. Am I not well-dressed ? ”
Again, when his steward was complaining of
down-right distress, and of there being no money
left, he said: ‘“ What are you troubling yourself
about? We are now more like our Master, Who
had not even where to lay His head, though as yet
we are not reduced to such extreniity as that.”
“ But what are we to do? ”’ persisted the steward.
‘“ My son,” the Bishop answered, “‘ we must live as
we can, on whatever goods we have, that is all.”
‘“Truly,’’ replied the other, “it is all very well to
talk of living on our goods when there are none left
to live upon!’ “ You do not understand me,”
returned the Bishop; ‘‘ we must sell or pledge some
of our furniture in order to live. Will not that, my
good M.R.,* be living on our goods?”
*Georges Roland.
Upon the love of holy poverty 131
It was in this fashion that the Saint was accus-
tomed to meet cheerfully money troubles, so unbear-
able to weaker characters.
On one occasion I expressed my admiration at his
being able to make so good a show on his small
means. ‘‘It is God,” he said, “Who multiplies
the five loaves.” On my pressing him to tell me
how it was done, “‘ Why, it would not be a
miracle,” he answered, with a smile, ‘‘ if we knew
that. Are we not most fortunate to live on only by
help of miracles? It is the mercy of God that we
are not consumed.’ ‘‘ You go quite beyond me,”
I said, “by taking that ground. I am not so
transcendently wise.”’
“ Listen,” he replied. ‘‘ Riches are truly thorns,
as the Gospel teaches us. They prick us with a
thousand troubles in acquiring them, with more
cares in preserving them, and with yet more anxie-
ties in spending them; and, most of all, with vexa-
tions in losing them.
“ After all, we are only managers and stewards,
especially if it is a question of the riches of the
Church, which are the true patrimony of the poor.
The important matter is to find faithful dispensers.
Having sufficient to feed and clothe ourselves suit-
ably, what more do we want? Assuredly, that
which is over and above these is of evil.*
‘* Shall I tell you what my own feeling is? Well
and good, but I must do so in your ear. I know
very well how to spend what I have; but if I had
more I should be in difficulty as to what to do with
it. Am I not happy to live like a child without
care? Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
*Matt. v. 37.
1382 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
The more any one has to manage the longer the
account he has to render. We must make use of
this world as though we were making no use of it at
all. We must possess riches as though we had
them not, and deal with the things of earth like the
dogs on the banks of the Nile, who, for fear of the
crocodiles, lap up the water of the river as they
run along its banks. If, as the wise man tells us,
he that addeth knowledge addeth also labour; much
more 1s this the case with the man who heaps up
riches. He is like the giants in the fable who piled
up mountains, and then buried themselves. under
them. Remember the miserable man who, as the
Gospel tells us, thought that he had many years
before him in which to live at his ease, but to whom
the heavenly vioce said: Thou fool, this night do
they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those
things be which thou hast proided? In truth
happy is he only who lays up imperishable trea-
sures in Heaven.”’
He would never allow himself to be called poor;
saying, that any one who had a revenue sufficient to
live upon without being obliged to labour with head
or hands to support himself should be called rich;
and such, he said, was the case with us both.
To my objection that our revenues were neverthe-
less so very small that we must be really considered
poor, for little, indeed, must we be working if our
labour was not worth what we got from our bishop-
rics, he replied: “‘ If you take it in this way you are
not so far wrong, for who is there who labours in a
vineyard and does not live upon its produce? What
shepherd feeds his flock and does not drink its milk
Upon the love of holy poverty 133
and clothe himself with its wool? So, too, may he
who sows spiritual seed justly reap the small har-
vest which he needs for his temporal sustenance.
If then he is poor who lives by work, and who eats
the fruit of his labour, we may very well be reckoned
as such; but if we regard the degree of poverty in
which our Lord and His Apostles lived, we must
perforce consider ourselves rich. After all, possess-
ing honestly all that is necessary for food and
clothing, ought we not to be content? Whatever is
more than this is only evil, care, superfluity, want-
ing which we shall have less of an account to render.
Happy is poverty, said a stoic, if it is cheerful
poverty ; and if it is that, it is really not poverty at
all, or only poverty of a kind that is far preferable
to the riches of the most wealthy, which are
amassed with difficulty, preserved with solicitude,
and lost with regret.”
Our Saint used to say that, as for the cravings of
nature, he who is not satisfied with what is really
enough will never be satisfied. I wish that I could
give any just idea of his extraordinary moderation
even in the use of the necessaries of life. He told
me once that when the time came for him to lay
down the burden of his episcopal duties and to
retire into solitude, there to pass the rest of his life
in contemplation and study, he should consider five
hundred crowns a year great wealth; in fact, he
would not reserve more from either his patrimony
or his Bishop’s revenue, adding these words of St.
Paul: Having food, and wherewith to be covered,
let us (priests) be content.* He gave this as his
reason. ‘*‘ The Church,” he said, ‘‘ which is the
*Tim. vi. 8.
134 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
kingdom of Jesus Christ, is established on founda-
tions directly opposed to those of the world, of which
our Saviour said His kingdom was not. Now, on
what is the kingdom of this world founded? Listen
to St. John: All that is in the world is the con-
cupiscence of the flesh, or of the eyes, and the
pride of life; that is to say, the pleasures of the
senses, avarice, and vanity. The Church then will
be founded on mortification of the flesh, poverty,
and humility. Pleasures and honours follow in the
train of wealth; but poverty puts an axe to the roots
of pride and sensual enjoyments. Some, says
David, blaming them, glory in the multitude of
their riches; and St. Paul exhorts the rich of this
world not to be high-minded.
It is a perilous thing for humility and mortifica-
tion to take up their abode with wealth.’’ This is
why he wished for nothing but bare necessaries,
fearing that superfluity might lead him into some
excess.
When I reminded him that if we had this super-
fluity we might give alms out of it, as it is written,
Of what remaineth give to the poor, he replied, that
we knew well enough what we ought to do; but that
we did not know what we should do, and that it was
always a species of presumption to imagine our-
selves able to handle live coals without burning our-
selves, seeing that even the Angel in the vision of
the Prophet took them up with tongs!
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
Our Blessed Father was so absolutely indifferent
to the goods of this world that I never heard him
Upon the same subject 135
so much as once complain of the loss of almost all
his episcopal revenue, confiscated by the city of
Geneva. He used to say that it was very much with
the wealth of the Church as with a man’s beard, the
more closely it was clipped the stronger and the
thicker it grew again. When the Apostles had
nothing they possessed all things, and when eccle-
Siastics wish to possess too much, that too much is
reduced to nothing.
His one hunger and thirst was for the conversion
of souls, living in wilful blindness to the light of
truth which shines only in the one true Church.
Sometimes, he exclaimed, sighing heavily: “‘ Give
me souls, and the rest take to Thyself.’ Speaking
of Geneva, to which city, in spite of its rebellion, he
always applied terms of compassion and affection,
such as ‘‘ my dear Geneva,’’ or ‘‘ my poor Geneva,”
he said to me more than once: ‘‘ Would to God
that these gentlemen had taken such small remains
of my revenue as they have left to me, and that we
had only as small a foothold in that deplorable city
as the Catholics have in La Rochelle, namely, a
little chapel in which to say Mass and perform the
functions of our religion! You would then soon
see all these apostates come back to their senses,
and we should rejoice over the return to the Church
of these poor Sunamites, who are so forgetful of
their duty.’’* This fond hope he always nourished
in his breast.
He used to say that Henry VIII. of England,
who at the beginning of his reign was so zealous
for the Catholic faith, and wrote so splendidly
against the errors of Luther, that he acquired for
*Cantic vi. 12.
136 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
that reason the glorious title of Defender of the
Faith, having, by yielding to his passion, caused so
great a schism in his kingdom, even had he desired
at the close of his life to return to the bosom of the
Church which he had so miserably abandoned,
would, on setting to work to attain this most happy
end, have found the impossibility of recovering
for the clergy and restoring to them the property
and wealth which he had divided among his nobles,
a serious difficulty.
‘Alas!’ our Blessed Father exclaimed, com-
menting upon this fact, ‘‘to think that a handful
of dust should rob Heaven of so many souls! The
business of every christian, and especially of the
clergy, is the keeping of God’s law. The Lord is
the portion of their inheritance and of their cup.
He would have made to them an abundant restitu-
tion of all that had been theirs, by gentle but effec-
tive means. They whose thoughts are fixed upon
the Lord will be nourished by Him. The just are
never forsaken nor reduced to beg their bread; they
have only to lift their eyes and their hopes to God
and He will give them meat in due season; for it is
He who gives food to all flesh. Moreover, it is
much easier to suffer hunger with patience than to
preserve virtue in the midst of plenty. It is not
every one who can say with the Apostle: I know
how to abound, and I know how to suffer need.* A
thousand fall on the left hand of adversity, but ten
thousand on the right hand of prosperity; for
iniquity is the outcome of luxury, and the sin of the
cities of the plain had its origin in a superabundance
of bread; that is to say, in their wealth. To be
*Philipp. iv. 12.
Upon poverty of spirit 137
frugal and devout is to possess a great treasure.”
UPON POVERTY OF SPIRIT.
Three virtues, he said, were necessary to consti-
tute poverty of spirit: simpilcity, humility, and
christian poverty. Simplicity consists in that single-
ness of aim which looks only to God, referring to
Him alone those innumerable opportunities which
come to us from objects other than Himself.
Humility is that conviction of our own inferiority
and destitution which makes the truly humble man
regard himself as always an unprofitable servant.
Chrstian poverty is of three kinds. First, that
which is affective, but not effective. This can be
practised in the midst of wealth, as in the case of
Abraham, David, St. Louis, and many other holy
persons, who, though rich in this world?s goods,
were ready in a moment to accept poverty with
cheerfulness and thankfulness if it should please
God to send it to them.
Second, effective but not affective poverty, which
is a very unhappy condition. Those who are
weighed down by it feel all its distressing con-
sequences and are miserable because they cannot
possess the many things which they ardently
desire.
Third, affective, united with effective poverty,
which is recommended in the Gospels, and which
may happen to be our lot, either from birth or from
some reverse of fortune.
If we are reconciled to our condition in life, how-
ever humble, and bless God Who has placed us in
it, then we tread in the footsteps of Jesus Christ,
188 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of His holy Mother, and of the Apostles, who
all lived a life of poverty.
Another way of practising this poverty is to follow
the counsels of Jesus Christ, Who bids us sell all
that we have and give it to the poor, imitating our
divine Master in that poverty which He embraced
for us, that we, through it, might be made rich.
And never is this command more practically and
worthily obeyed than when the man who has aban-
doned all his worldly goods for the sake of Christ,
labours, not only in order to sustain his own life,
but that he may have the wherewithal to give
alms.
Thus did the Apostle glory when he said: For
such things as were needful for me, and them that
are with me, these hands have furnished.*
FRANCIS’ LOVE OF THE POOR.
To love our neighbour is not only to wish him
well, but also to do him all the good that it is in our
power to do. If we fall short of this, we deserve
the reproach of St. James, addressed to those who,
though they have ample means for giving material
aid to the poor, content themselves with bare words
of comfort.
The love of Blessed Francis for the poor was so
intense that in their case he seemed to become a
respecter of persons, preferring them to the rich,
both in spiritual and in temporal matters. He was
like a good physician who in visiting the sick shows
the most tender solicitude for those afflicted with
the most terrible diseases and lingers longest by
their bedsides.
*ActS xx. 34.
Upon the christian view of Poverty 139
One day I had to wait my turn to go to confession
to him for a very long time, he being engaged in
hearing a poor blind beggar woman. When I
afterwards expressed my surprise at the length of
her confession, he said: ‘‘ Ah! She sees far more
clearly the way to go to God than many whose eye-
sight is otherwise perfect.’’
On another occasion, sailing with him on the
lake of Geneva, I heard the boatman calling him
‘“ Father,” and addressing him with corresponding
familiarity. ‘‘ Listen,” he said to me, ‘“‘ to those
good people. They are calling me their Father;
and, indeed, I do believe they love me as such.
Oh! how much more real happiness they give me
than those who call me ‘ My Lord.’ ”’
UPON THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF POVERTY.
On one occasion I quoted that saying of Seneca:
‘“He is truly great who dines off earthenware as
contentedly as if it were silver; but he is greater still
who dines off silver with as much indifference as if
it were earthenware.’’
‘“ The philosopher,” he said, ‘‘is right in his
judgment; for the first feasts on mere fancy, leading
to vanity; but the second shows that he is superior
to wealth, since he cares no more for a precious metal
than for clay.
Yet, Oh! how ridiculous; how empty is all mere
human philosophy! This same philosopher who
speaks so eloquently again and again of the con-
tempt of riches, was all his life immersed in them;
and at his death left thousands behind him. Does
it not seem to you that, this being his own case,
his talking about poverty makes him like a cleric
140 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
expatiating on the art of war? We had far better
listen to St. Paul, who speaks as a past master on
the subject of poverty, since he practised it so
thoroughly that he chose rathér to live on what he
could earn by the labour of his hands than on what
the preaching of the Gospel might bring in to him,
as to the other Apostles. Yes, we must needs listen
to and believe St. Paul when he says that he esteems
all things as dung in comparison with the service
of Jesus Christ, counting as loss what he once held
as gain.”*
Upon PROSPERITY.
Blessed Francis objected strongly to the use of the
word fortune, considering it unworthy of utterance
by christian lips. The expressions ‘‘ fortunate,” “‘by
good fortune,” ‘‘ children of fortune,” all common
enough, were repugnant to him. ‘* I am aston-
ished,’’ he said once, ‘‘ that Fortune, the most
pagan of idols, should have been left standing,
when chrisianity so completely demolished all the
rest! God forbid that any who ought to be the
children of God’s providence alone become children
of fortune! and that those whose only hope should
be in Him put their trust in the uncertainty of
niches! °’
He spoke yet more strongly of such as professing
to be nailed with Jesus Christ to the Cross and to
glory only in His reproaches and sufferings, yet
were eager in heaping up riches, and, when amassed, :
in clinging fondly to them. ‘‘ For,” he said, ‘* the
Gospel makes christian blessedness to consist in
poverty, contempt, pain, weeping, and persecu-
tions; and even philosophy teaches us that pros-
*Philipp. iii. 8.
Upon Prosperity 141
perity is the stepmother of true virtue, adversity
its mother !”’
I asked him once how it was that we are so ready
to have recourse to God when the thorn of affliction
pierces us, and so eager in asking for deliverance
from sickness, calumny, famine, and such like mis-
fortunes. ‘‘ It is,’’ he said, ‘f our weakness which
thus cries out for help, and it is a proof of the in-
firmity which encompasses us; for as the best and
firmest fish feed in the salt waters of the open sea,
those which are caught in fresh water being less
pleasing to the taste, so the most generous natures
find their element in crosses and afflictions, while
meaner spirits are only happy in prosperity.
Moreover,” he continued, ‘‘it is much easier
to love God perfectly in adversity than in prosperity.
For tribulation having nothing in itself that is lov-
able, save that it is God’s gift, it is much easier to
go by it straight to the will of God, and to unite
ourselves to His good pleasure. Easier, I say, than
by prosperity, which has attractions of its own that
captivate our senses, and, like Dalila, lull them to
sleep, working in us a subtle change, so that we
begin insensibly to love for its own sake the
prosperity which God sends us, instead of bestow-
ing all our grateful love on God Who sends it, and
to Whom all thanks and praise are due! ”
Upon CHARITY AND CHASTITY.
Feeling at one time troubled and perplexed in
mind as to the bearing of these two virtues upon
one another, and as to the right manner of prac-
tising each, so that one should never run counter
to the other, I carried my difficulties to our Blessed
142 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Father, who settled them at once in the following
words: “*‘ We must,’ he said, “in this matter
draw a careful distinction between persons who
Occupy positions of dignity and authority, and
have the care of others, and those private indi-
viduals who have no one to look after but them-
selves. The former must deliver their chastity
into the keeping of their charity; and if that
charity is real and true it will not fail them, but
will serve as a strong wall of defence, both without
and within, to their chastity. On the other hand,
private individuals will do better to surrender the
guardianship of their charity to their chastity, and
to walk with the greatest circumspection and self-
restraint. The reason of this is that those in
authority are obliged by the very nature of their
duties, to expose themselves to the dangers insepar-
able from occasions: in which, however, they are
assisted by grace, seeing they are not tempting
God by any rashness.
Contrariwise, those private individuals who
expose themselves to danger without any legiti-
mate excuse run great risk of tempting God and
losing His grace; since it is written that he that
loveth danger (still more he that seeketh it) shall
perish in it.’’*
Upon PURITY OF HEART.
I can never express to you, or convey a right
idea, of the high esteem in which he held purity
of heart. He said that chastity of body was com-
mon enough even among unbelievers and among
persons addicted to other vices; but that very few
people could truly say, my heart is pure.
*Eccles iii. 27
Upon Chastity and Humility 143
I do not say that by this purity of heart he
meant the never being troubled by sinful desires,
for that would be making the virtue of chastity
to consist in insensibility; and what do those who
are not tempted know about the matter ?
No; he placed it in never yielding to unlawful
affections. To these we should rather give the
name of infections, since they infect the will, and
interfere with the safe custody of the heart, which
is the well-spring of the spiritual life.
Upon CHASTITY AND HUMILITY.
Speaking of the humility and chastity of the
Blessed Virgin the holy Prelate said: “These
two virtues, although they have to be continually
practised, should be spoken of so rarely that this
rarity of speech may rank as silence. The reason
is that it is difficult to mention these virtues or to
praise them either in themselves or in any indivi-
dual who possesses them, without in some way
sullying their brightness.
1. There is, in my opinion, no human tongue
which can rightly express their value, and to
praise them inadequately is in a way to disparage
them.
2. To praise humility is to cause it to be de-
sired from a secret self-love and to invite people
to enter its domain through the wrong door.
3. To praise humility in any individual is to
tempt him to vanity and to flatter him danger-
ously; for the more he thinks himself humble the
less he will really be so; and possibly when he
sees that others consider him humble he will think
that he must be so.
144 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
4. As regards chastity, to praise it in itself
is to leave on the mind a secret and almost imper-
ceptible image of the contrary vice, and therefore
to expose the mind to some danger of temptation.
There is a sting hidden in the honey of such
praise.
5. To praise it in any individual is Tim ES
measure to expose him to the danger of falling.
It is to put a stumbling-block in his way. It is to
inflate that pride which under a fair disguise may
lure him over a precipice.
6. We must never be content to rely upon our
hitherto untarnished purity of life, but must
always fear, since innocence is a treasure which
we carry in a vessel of glass, easily broken.
7. Ina word, the virtues of humility and chas-
tity always seem to me like those subtle essences
which evaporate if they are not kept very tightly
corked.
8. However, although I consider it wise very
seldom to speak of these two virtues, it is wise to
practise them unceasingly, humility being one of
the most excellent virtues of the soul, and purity
that fair white adornment of the body which is its
honour, and which, like a lily growing among
thorns, brings forth a wonderful flower, whose
fruit is honour and riches.
g- Nevertheless, I do not mean that we are to
be so scrupulous as never to dare to speak of these
virtues; not even to praise them when occasion
warrants or demands our doing so. No, indeed,
In one sense they can never be sufficiently praised,
nor ever sufficiently valued and cultivated. What
I mean is that we gain little by praising them.
Upon Modesty 145
Our words in praise of a virtue are of little account
in comparison with the smallest fruit; that is, with
the least of the acts of a virtue.
I add this because I know you attach too much
importance to my words, and take them as literally.
as if they were oracles.”
Upon MODESTY.
Our Blessed Father, speaking of the virtue of
modesty, and dilating upon one of its chief pro-
perties, namely, its extraordinary sensitiveness to
the slightest injurious influence, made use of two
beautiful comparisons: ‘‘ However pure, trans-
parent, and polished the surface of a mirror may
be, the faintest breath is sufficient to make it so
dull and misty that it is unable to reflect any
image. So it is with the reputation of the virtuous.
However high and well established it may be,
according the words of wisdom: Oh! how beautiful
is the chaste generation!* a thoughtless, unre-
strained glance or gesture is quite sufficient to give
occasion to a slanderous tongue to infect that repu-
tation with the serpent’s venom, and to hide its
lustre from the eyes of the world, as clouds hide the
brightness of the sun.
Again, look at this beautiful lily. It is the sym-
bol of purity; it preserves its whiteness and sweet-
ness, amid all the blackness and ruggedness of the
encircling thorns. As long as it remains untouched
its perfume is delicious and its dazzling beauty of
form and colour charms every passer-by; but, as
soon as it is culled, the scent is so strong as to be
overpowering, and should you touch the petals they
*Wisd. iv. I.
K
146 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
lose their satin smoothness as well as all their pure
and white loveliness.”
THE CONTEMPT HE FELT FOR HIS BODY.
Since our Blessed Father was not, like the mar-
tyrs, privileged to offer his body, both by living and
dying, as a victim for God, he found out, with the
ingenuity ,of love, a method of self-humiliation and
self-sacrifice to be carried out after his death.
When quite young and still pursuing his studies
at Padua, falling dangerously ill, and his life being
despaired of, he begged his tutor to see that when
he was dead his body should be given into the hands
of ‘the surgeons for dissection. ‘* Having been of
so little use to my neighbour in life,” he said, “I
shall thus at least, after my death, be able to render
him some small service.”
Happily for us, God in His great mercy spared
this precious life, being contented, as in the case of
the sacrifice of Isaac, with the offering of His faith-
ful servant’s will and with his generous contempt
for his own flesh.
A motive which urged Blessed Francis to the
above resolution, besides his desire of self-humilia-
tion and immolation, was the hope of putting an end
to the scandalous practice then prevailing among
the surgical and medical students at Padua of
secretly by night going to the cemeteries to disinter
newly-buried bodies. This they did when they had
failed to obtain those of criminals from.the officers
of justice. Innumerable evils, quarrels, and even
murders resulted from this practice, and the indig-
nation of the relatives and friends of the deceased
persons whose corpses were stolen may be imagined.
Upon our Saints Humility 147
By setting the example of a voluntary surrender of
his own body for dissection our Blessed Father
hoped to diminish such orders.
UPON OUR SAINT’S HUMILITY.
It was of course impossible for Blessed Francis
to be ignorant of the high esteem in which his piety
was held, not only by his own people, but by all
who knew him. This knowledge was, however, as
may well be believed, a source of pain to him, and
often covered him with confusion. He seldom
spoke on the subject, for true humility rarely
speaks, even humbly, of itself. Yet on one occa-
sion, when more than usually worried by hearing
himself praised, he allowed these words to fall from
his lips: ‘* The truth is that these good people with
all their eulogiums, and expressions of esteem, are
sowing the seed of a bitter fruit for me to gather in
the end. When I am dead, imagining that my
poor soul has gone straight to Heaven, they will
not pray for it, and will leave me languishing in
Purgatory. Of what avail then will this high repu-
tation be to me? They are treating me like those
animals which suffocate their young by their close
pressure and caresses, or like the ivy which drags
down the wall it seems to crown with verdure.”
I willnow give you some examples of his humility.
He was sometimes told that people had spoken ill
of him. Instead of excusing or defending himself,
he would say cheerfully, ‘‘ Do they say no more
than that? Certainly, they cannot know all, they
flatter me, they spare me: I see very well that they
rather pity than envy me, and that they wish me to
be better than I am. Well! God be praised for
148 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
this, I must correct my faults, for if I do not de-
serve reproof in this particular matter, I do in some
other. It is really a mercy that the correction is
given so kindly.’’ If anyone took up his defence
and declared that the whole accusation was false,
‘“Ah! well, ’? he would say, ‘‘it is a warning to
make me careful not to justify it, for surely they are
doing me a kindness by calling my attention to the
dangers of this rock ahead.”
Then, noticing how indignant we all were with
the slanderers, ‘‘ What,’ he would exclaim,
“have I given you leave to fly into a passion on
my account? Let them talk—it is but a storm in a
teacup, a tempest of words that will die away and
be forgotten. We must be sensitive indeed if we
cannot bear the buzzing of a fly! Who has told us
that we are blameless? Possibly these people see
our faults better than we see them ourselves, and
better than those who love us do. When truths
displease us, we often call them slanders. What
harm do others do us by having a bad opinion of
us? We ought to have a bad opinion of ourselves.
Such persons are not our adversaries, but rather
our allies, since they enlist themselves on our side
in the battle against our self-love. Why be angry
with those who come to our aid against so powerful
an enemy? ”
It happened once that a certain simple-minded
woman told our saint bluntly that what she had
heard of him had caused her to loose all esteem
for him. Blessed Francis replied quietly that her
straightforward words only increased his fatherly
affection for her, as they were an evidence of great
candour, a virtue he highly respected.
Upon our Saints Humility 149
The woman proceeded to declare that the reason
she was so greatly disappointed in him was be-
cause she had been told that he had taken her
adversary’s part in a law-suit instead of acting
as the father of all and siding with none. ‘‘ Nay,”
rejoined the Saint, ‘‘do not fathers interfere in
the quarrels of their children, judging between
right and wrong? Besides, the verdict of the
court should have convinced you that you were
in the wrong, since it was given against you; and
had I been one of the judges I must have decided
as they did.”
The woman protested that injustice had been
done to her, but the Saint quietly and patiently
reasoned with her and assured her that although
it was natural that she should feel angry at first,
yet, when the bandage of passion had fallen from
her eyes, she would thank God for having deprived
her of that which in justice she could not have
retained.
This person finally admitted that she had been
in the wrong, but enquired if Blessed Francis was
really not annoyed at her having lost her high
opinion of him, having formerly regarded him as a
Saint. He assured her she was wrong in having done
so, and that, far from being annoyed, his esteem
for her was all the greater on account of this, her
correct judgment. “‘ Believe me,” he went on to
say, ‘‘I am speaking from a sense of truth, and
not out of false humility, when I maintain that
my friends over-rate me. The fact is, they try to
persuade themselves that I really am what they so
ardently desire me to be. They expose me to the
danger of losing my soul by pride and presump-
150 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
tion. You, on the contrary, are giving me a
practical lesson in humility, and are thus leading
me in the way of salvation, for it is written, God
will save the humble of heart.’’
UPON MERE HUMBLENESS OF SPEECH.
He disliked expressions of humility unless they
clearly came from the heart, and said that words
of this kind were the flower, the cream, and the
quintessence of the most subtle pride, subtle inas-
much as it was hidden even from him who spoke
them. He compared such language to a certain
sublimated and penetrating poison, which to the
eye seems merely a mist.
Those who speak this language of false humility
are lifted up on high, whilst in thoughts and
motives they remain mean and low. He considered
similar fashions of speech to be even more intoler-
able than the words of vain persons who are the
sport of their hearers, and whose empty boasting
makes them to be like balloons, the plaything of
everybody. A mocking laugh is sufficient to let
all the wind which puffs them out escape. Words
of humility coming merely from the lips, and not
from the heart, lead surely to vanity, though by
what seems the wrong road. Those who utter
them are like people who take their salary gladly
enough, but insist on first making a show of
refusing and of saying that they want nothing.
Even excuses proffered in this manner accus .
and betray the person who offers them. The truly
humble of heart do not wish to appear humble, but
to be humble. Humility is so delicate a virtue
that it is afraid of its own shadow, and cannot hear
Upon various degrees of Humility 151
its own name uttered without running the risk of
extinction.
UPON VARIOUS DEGREES OF HUMILITY.
Blessed Francis set the highest value upon the
virtue of humility, which he called the foundation
of all moral virtues, and together with charity, the
solid basis of true piety.
He used to say that there was no moral excellence
more literally christian than humility, because it
was not known even by name to the heathen of
old. Even of the most renowned among ancient
philosophers, such virtues as they possessed were
inflated with pride and self-love.
Not every kind of humility pleased him. He
was not willing to accept any as true metal until
he had put it to many a test and trial.
1. He required in the first place that there should
be genuine self-knowledge. To be truly humble
we must recognise the fact that we come from
nothing, that we are nothing, that we can do
nothing, that we are worth nothing, and in fine that
we are idle do-nothings, unprofitable servants, in-
capable of even forming a single good thought, as
of ourselves. Yet self-knowledge, he said, if it
stood alone, however praiseworthy in itself, would
only render those who possessed it the more guilty
if they did not act up to it, in order to become
better; because moral virtue being in the will, and
mere knowledge only in the understanding, the
latter alone cannot in any way pass current as true
virtue.
2. He even had some doubt of humility though
residing in the will, because it is quite possible to
152 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
misuse it, and to turn humility itself into vanity.
Take for instance those who, having been invited to
a banquet, take at once possession of the very
lowest place, or of one which they know to be in-
ferior to that due to their rank. They may do this
on purpose to be invited to go higher amidst the
applause of the company, and with advantage to
themselves. He called this a veritable entering
into vanity, and through the wrong door: for the
truly humble do not wish to appear humble, but
only vile and lowly. They love to be considered
as of no account, and, as such, to be despised and
rebuffed.
3. Even this did not satisfy him. He was not
content with mere natural virtue, but insisted that
humility must be christian, given birth to, and
animated by charity. Otherwise he held it in
small esteem, refusing to admit that among
christians it suffices to practise virtues in pagan
fashion. But what is this infused and supernatural
humility? It is to love and delight in one’s own
humiliation, for the reason that by its means we
are able to give glory to God, Who accepts the
humility of His servants, but puts far away from
His heart the proud in spirit.
4. Again, our Saint taught that in striving to
please God by bearing humiliations, we should
aim at accepting such as are not of our own choice
rather than those that are voluntary. He used
to say that the crosses fashioned by us for our-
selves are always of the lightest and slenderest,
and that he valued an ounce of resignation to
suffering above pounds’ weight of painful toil,
good though it might be in itself, undertaken of
one’s own accord.
Upon various degrees of Humility 153
5. Quiet endurance of reproaches, contempt, or
depreciation, was, in his opinion, the true touch-
stone of humility, because it renders us more like
to Jesus Christ, the Prototype of all solid virtue,
Who humbled and annihilated Himself, making
Himself obedient unto death, even the ignominious
death of the Cross.
6. He commended voluntary seeking after
humiliations, yet he insisted upon great discretion
being practised in this search, since it easily
happens that self-love may subtly and imper-
ceptibly insinuate itself therein.
7. Next he considered that the highest, or more
properly speaking, deepest degree of humility is
that of taking pleasure and even delight in humilia-
tions, reputing them to be in truth the greatest of
honours, and of being just as much ill-content with
honours as vain persons are with contempt and
contumely.
In illustration of this he would quote Moses, who
preferred the reproach of Israel to the glories of a
kingdom offered to him by Pharaoh’s daughter; of
Esther, who hated the splendid ornaments with
which they decked her to make her pleasing in the
eyes of Assuerus; of the Apostles, whose greatest
joy was to suffer shame and reproach for the name
of Jesus; and of David, who danced before the Ark
amid a crowd of buffoons and mountebanks, and
who exulted in thus making himself appear con-
temptible in the eyes of Michol, his wife.
8. Blessed Francis called humility a descending
charity, and charity an ascending humility. The
former he compared to those streams which come
down from the heights and flow down into the
154 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
valleys. The latter to the slender column of smoke
spoken of in the Canticle* which rises up towards
Heaven, and is composed of all the sweet essences
of the perfumer.
g. The Saint next gives a rare lesson on the
measure or means of gauging humility. Obedience
is to be its source and touch-stone. This teaching
he grounded on the saying of St. Paul: that our
Lord humbled Himself, making Himself obedient.F
‘“Do you see,” he would say, “by what scale
humility must be measured? By obedience. If
you obey promptly, frankly, cheerfully, without
murmuring, expostulating, or replying, you are
truly humble. Nor without humility can one be
easily and really obedient, for obedience demands
submission of the heart, and only the truly humble
look upon themselves as inferior to all and as subject
to every creature for the love of Jesus Christ. They
ever regard their fellow-men as their superiors, they
consider themselves to be the scorn of men and the
off-scouring of the world. Thus these two virtues,
like two pieces of iron, by friction one with the
other, enhance each other’s brightness and polish.
We are humble only in as far as we are obedient,
and in fine we are pleasing to God only in as far as
we have charity.”
10. He recommended all to endeavour to steep
their every action in the spirit of humility, as the
swan steeps in water each morsel she swallows, and
how can this be done except by hiding our good
works as much as we can from the eyes of men, and.
by desiring that they may be seen only by Him
to Whom all things are open, and from Whom
*Cant iï. 6. tPhilipp ii. 8.
Upon various degrees of Humility 155
nothing can be hid. Our Saint himself, urged by
this spirit, said that he would have wished, had
there been any goodness in him, that it might have
been hidden from himself as well as from all others
until the Judgment Day, when the secrets of all
hearts will be revealed. The Gospel itself exhorts
us to observe this secrecy, for it warns us to serve
God in secret, and by hiding our virtues, our
prayers, our almsgiving, fittingly to worship Him,
Who is a hidden God.
11. Blessed Francis did not, however, desire that
we Should put ourselves to the constraint and dis-
comfort of avoiding good actions simply because
of their being praiseworthy in the eyes of others.
What he approved of was a noble, generous,
courageous humility, not that which is mean, timid,
and cowardly. True, he would not that anything
should be done for so low a motive as to win the
praise of men, but at the same time he would not
have an undertaking abandoned for fear of its
success being appreciated and applauded. ‘‘It is
only very weak heads,” he said, “‘ that are made
to ache by the scent of roses.”
12. Above all things, he recommended people
not to speak either in praise or blame of themselves
save when doing so is absolutely necessary, and
then with great reticence. It was his opinion (as it
was Aristotle’s) that both self-praise and self-blame
spring from the same root of vanity and foolish-
ness. ‘‘ As for boasting, it is,” he said, ‘‘ so ridicu-
lous a weakness that it is hissed down by even the
vulgar crowd. Its one fitting place is in the mouth
of a swaggering comedian. In like manner words
of contempt spoken of ourselves by ourselves, un-
156 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
less they are absolutely heartfelt and come from a
mind thoroughly convinced of the fact of its own
misery, are truly the very acme of pride, and a
flower of the most subtle vanity; for it rarely hap-
pens that he who utters them either believes them
himself or really wishes others to believe them: on
the contrary, the speaker is mostly only anxious
rather to be considered humble, and consequently
virtuous, and seeks that his self-blame should re-
dound to his honour. Self-dispraise in general is
no more than a tricky kind of boasting. It reminds
me of oarsmen who turn their backs on the very
place which with all the strength of their arms they
are Striving to reach.”
The above sentiments of Blessed Francis with
regard to humility are very striking, but it is much
more worthy of note that he himself carried his
principles strictly into practice. His actions were
so many model lessons and living precepts on the
subject. O God! how pleasing must the sacrifice
of his humility have been in Thine eyes which look
down so closely upon the humble, but regard the
proud only from afar.
UrPon HUMILIATION.
The great lesson which on all possible occasions
Blessed Francis inculcated on those who were for-
tunate enough to come into contact with him, and to
treat with him concerning their soul’s welfare, was
that which our Saviour teaches. Learn of Me, be-
cause I am meek and humble of heart.* Not, how-
ever, that he attached the meaning to the words
*Matt. xi. 20.
Upon Humiliation 157
meek, and humble, often, but very erroneously,
given to them.
By meekness he did not understand a kind of
honeyed sweetness, too often mixed with a good
deal of affectation and pretention. A wolf’s heart
may be hidden under the fleece and gentle seeming
of a lamb, and underneath an outside covering of
humility may lurk secret arrogance, such that while
appearing to lie down to be trodden under men’s
feet, those humble after this fashion may by
pride in their own pretended state of perfection be
putting all men under their own feet. Our Lord’s
words, If any man will come after Me, let him deny
himself take up his cross, and follow Me,* Blessed
Francis, in one of his letters, explained as follows:
‘It is to walk side by side with our crucified
Bridegroom, to abase ourselves, to humble our-
selves, to despise ourselves even to the death of all
our passions; yea, I say, even to the death of the
Cross. But observe, my dear daughter, that this
abasement, this humility, this contempt of our-
selves, must, as I have told you before, be practised
gently, quietly, persistently, and not only sweetly,
but gladly and joyously.”
HUMILITY WITH REGARD TO PERFECTION.
Whatever perfection the just man may recognize
in himself, he is like the palm tree, which, says the
Psalmist, the higher it rears its lofty head the
deeper down in the earth it casts its roots.
And certainly, since all our perfection comes from
God, since we have no good or perfect gift which
158 The Sprit of St. Francis De Sales
we have not received from the Father of Lights, we
have no reason to glorify ourselves.
Truly, we can do nothing of ourselves as of our-
selves, all our sufficiency, in good, proceeding from
God. Our vanity is such that as soon as we begin
to suspect we are not guilty, we regard ourselves as
innocent, forgetting that if we do not fail in one
direction we do in another, and that, as St. Gregory
says, our perfection, in proportion to its advance-
ment, makes us the better perceive our imperfec-
tions.
Without purity how should we recognise im-
purity? It is light which makes us understand
what darkness is. Many people not discerning in
themselves certain particular vices think that they
possess the opposite virtues, and are deceived.
Again, seeing themselves freed from some
earthly passions they imagine themselves to be
clothed in heavenly affections; and thus their ill-
advised heart is darkened, they feed upon wind,
and walk on in the vanity of their thoughts.
Our Blessed Father, reflecting one day upon the
condition of his soul and feeling it to be enjoying
great peace owing to its detachment from creatures,
made his own the sentiments of the great Apostle,
who, though not feeling himself guilty of anything,
yet did not therefore consider himself justified, and
who forgetting the past pressed on always farther
and farther, never thinking that he had yet reached
the goal of perfection.*
I must read you the passage in which he expresses
this view of himself :—
“I find my soul a little more to my liking than
*Philipp. Mi. 13.
Humility with regard to perfection 159
usual, because I see nothing in it which keeps it
attached to this world, and because it is more alive
to the things of the next, to its eternal joys. Ah!
if I were but as closely and consciously united to
God as I am dissevered and alienated from the
world, how happy I should be! And you, too, my
daughter, how rejoiced you would be! But I am
speaking of my feelings, and my inward self; as re-
gards the exterior, and, worst of all, as regards my
deportment and behaviour, they are full of all sorts
of contradictory imperfections. The good which I
wish to do, I do not do; but nevertheless I know
well that truly and with no pretence, I do wish to
do it, and with a most unchanging will. But, my
Daughter, how can it be that out of such a will so
many imperfections show themselves as are con-
tinually springing up within me? Certainly, they
are not of my will, though they be in my will, and
on my will. They are like the mistletoe which
grows and appears on a tree and in a tree, although
it is not of the tree, nor out of the tree.”
UPON EXCUSES.
Although to excuse ourselves for our faults is in
many circumstances blameworthy, whilst in general
to accuse ourselves of them is laudable, still when
self-accusation is carried too far, it is apt to run into
affectation, making us wish to pass for something
different from what we really are, or, with scrupu-
losity, making us persuade ourselves that we are
what we describe ourselves to be.
It is true that the just man is his own accuser and
that, knowing his faults, he declares them simply,
in Order to be cured of them by wholesome correc-
160 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
tions. It is also true that it is a bad thing to excuse
oneself, an excuse being always worse than the
fault committed, inasmuch as it shows that we
think we were right in committing the fault; a per-
suasion which is contrary to truth.
If our first parents had not excused themselves,
the man throwing the blame on the woman, the
woman on the serpent, and if, on the contrary, con-
fessing their sin, they had repented, they would
have crushed the serpent while in the act of wound-
ing them, and God, who had invited them to
this repentance by His loving rebuke, Adam,
where art thou? would in His mercy, have surely
pardoned them.
This was what made David pray that God would
set a watch before his mouth, and on his lips, lest
he should be led to utter evil words. By evil words
he means excuses which we invent to cover our
sins.*
Our Blessed Father advises us as follows: “‘ Be
just, and without mature consideration, neither ex-
cuse nor accuse your poor soul, lest if you excuse it
when you should not, you make it insolent, and if
you accuse it lightly, you discourage it and make
it cowardly. Walk simply and you will walk
securely.’’ I once heard him utter these striking
words: ‘‘He who excuses himself unjustly, and
affectedly, accuses himself openly and truly; and
he who accuses himself simply and humbly, de-
Serves to be excused kindly and to be pardoned
lovingly.”
There is a confession which brings confusion,
and another which brings glory. Confession, says
*Psalm cxl. 3, 4.
Upon our good name — 161
St. Ambrose, is the true medicine for sin to him
who repents of wrong doing.
UPON OUR GOOD NAME.
It is hardly likely that Blessed Francis could
have been ambitious of the empty honours attached
to an office at court since he did not even trouble
himself to keep up his own reputation, except in as
far as it might serve to advance the glory of God,
which was not only the great but the one passion
of his heart.
When a very serious accusation against him
was carried to the court, he tells us: “I re-
mained humble and silent, not even saying what I
might have said in my defence, but contenting my-
self with bearing my suffering in my heart. The
effect of this patience has been to kindle in my soul
a more ardent love of God, and also to light up the
fire of meditation. I said to God: Thou art my
Protector, and my Refuge in this tribulation, it is
for Thee to deliver me out of it. O God of truth,
redeem me from the calumny of men!”
He wrote as follows on the same subject to a holy
soul who was far more keenly interested in what
concerned him than in what affected herself:
** After all, Providence knows the exact amount of
reputation which is necessary to me, in order that
I may rightly discharge the duties of the service to
which I have been called, and I desire neither more
nor less than it pleases that good Providence to !et
me have.”
UPON DESPISING THE ESTEEM OF MEN.
He had no desire that we should make light of
J
162 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Our reputation, or be careless about it, but he
wished us to guard it for the service of God rather
than for our own honour; and more to avoid scan-
dal than to glorify ourselves.
He used to compare reputation to snuff, which
may be beneficial if used occasionally and moder-
ately, but which clouds and injures the brain when
used in excess; and to the mandrake which is
soothing when smelt at a distance, but if brought
too close, induces drowsiness and lethargy.
In his Philothea he devotes one chapter to the
subject of guarding our reputation, while at the
same time practising humility.* He did not, how-
ever, content himself with teaching by precept; he
went much further, and continually impressed his
lesson on others by his example. On one occa-
sion, writing to me about some slanderous reports
each had been spread in Paris against him, ‘on
account of conscientious and holy advice hte he
had given to virtuous people who had sought
counsel of him, he expressed himself in these
words: ‘‘ I am told that they are cutting my reputa-
tion to pieces in Paris, but I hope that God will
build it up again, stronger than ever, if that is
necessary for His service. Certainly I do not want
it except for that purpose, for, provided that God
be served, what matters whether it be by good or
evil report, by the exaltation, or by the defamation
of our good name? ”
‘“ Ah,” he said to me one day, ‘* what is a man’s
reputation, that so many should sacrifice them-
selves to this idol? After all, it is nothing but a
dream, a phantom, an opinion, so much smoke;
*Part iii. chap. vil.
Upon despising the esteem of men 163
praise of which the very remembrance perishes
with its utterance; an estimate which is often so
false that people are secretly amused to hear them-
selves extolled for virtues, whose contrary vices
they know to be dominating them, and blamed for
faults from which they are happily quite free.
Surely those who complain of being slandered are
over-sensitive! Their little cross, made of words, is
so light that a breath of wind carries it away. The
expression, ‘stung me,’ meaning ‘abused me,’
is one that I have never liked, for there is a great
deal of difference between the humming of a bee,
and its stinging us! We must indeed have sensi-
tive ears, if mere buzzing stings them !
Truly, those were clever people who invented
the proverb: ‘A good name is better than riches’;
preferring reputation to wealth, or, in other words,
vanity to avarice. Oh, my God! how far removed
is this from the spirit of faith! Was there ever any
reputation more torn to pieces than that of Jesus
Christ? With what insults was He not over-
whelmed? With what calumnies was He not
loaded? And yet the Father has given Him a
name which is above every name, and exalted Him
the more, the more he was humbled. Did not the
Apostles also come forth rejoicing from the presence
of the Council where they had received affronts for
the name of Jesus?
Oh, it is a glorious thing to suffer in so worthy
a cause! But too often we will have none but open
persecutions, so that our light may shine in the
midst of darkness, and that our vanity may be
gratified by a display of our sufferings. We should
like to be crucified gloriously in the midst of an ad-
164 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
miring crowd. What! think you that the martyrs
when they were suffering their cruel tortures, were
praised by the spectators for their patience? On
the contrary, they were reviled and held up to
execration. Ah! there are very few who are will-
ing to trample under foot their own reputation, if
so be, they may thereby advance the glory of Him
Who died an ignominous death upon the Cross, to
bring us to a glory which has no end.”
UPON THE VIRTUES WE SHOULD PRACTISE WHEN
CALUMNIATED.
Blessed Francis was once asked if we ought not to
oppose calumny with the weapons of truth, and if it
was not as much our duty to keep, for God’s sake,
our good name, as our bodily strength. He an-
swered that on such occasions many virtues were
called into exercise, each claiming precedence over
the other.
The first is truth to which the love of God and of
ourselves in God, compels us to bear testimony.
Nevertheless that testimony has to be calm, gentle,
kindly, given without irritation or vehemence, and
with no anxiety about consequences. Our Saviour,
when He was accused of having a devil, answered
quite simply: “‘ I have nota devil.’’*
If you should be blamed for any scandalous
fault, of which, however, you know you are not
guilty, say candidly and quietly that, by the grace
of God, you are innocent of sucha sin. But, if you
are not believed, humility now claims her right and
bids you say that you have indeed many greater
faults unknown to the world, that you are in every
*John viii. 49.
|
Upon the virtues we should practice, dc. 165
way miserable and that if God did not sustain you
in your weakness, you would commit far greater
crimes than you are accused of.
This sort of humility is in no way prejudicial to
truth, for was it not from the depths of true
humility that David cried out saying, that if God
had not aided him his soul would have dwelt in
ineli.*
Should the tempest of evil speaking continue,
silence steps to the front, and offers her calm
resistance to the storm, following the teaching of
the Royal Prophet, who says: And I became as a
dumb man not opening his mouth.t
Answering is the oil which feeds the lamp of
calumny, silence is the water which extinguishes it.
If silence is unavailing, then patience reminds you
that it is her turn to act, and, coming forward,
shelters you with her impenetrable shield;
patience, as Holy Scripture tells us, makes our
work perfect.
If we be still assailed, we must call to our aid
constancy, which is a kind of double-lined buckler
of patience, impervious to the most violent thrusts.
But should evil tongues, growing yet sharper
and keener, cut to the very quick, longanimity,
which is an unfailing, undying patience, is ready
to enter the lists, and eager to help us. For when
persecution, instead of yielding to our patience, is
only the more irritated thereby, like a fire which
burns more fiercely in frosty weather, then is the
time for us to practise the virtue of longanimity.
And last of all comes perseverance, which goes
with us to the very end and without which the
*Psalm xcii. 17. fId. xxxvii. 14.
166 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
whole network of virtues would fall to pieces; for
it is the end which crowns the work, and he who
perseveres to the end shall be saved.
Indeed, who can say how many more virtues
claim a place in this bright choir? Prudence,
gentleness, modesty of speech, and many another,
circle round their queen, holy charity, who is in-
deed the life and soul of them all. Charity it is
which bids us bless those who curse us, and pray
for those who persecute us; and this same charity
not unfrequently transforms our persecutors into
protectors and changes slanderous tongues into
trumpets to sound our praise.
UPON SOME SPIRITUAL MAXIMS.
One one occasion somebody quoted in his
presence the maxims of a very great and very holy
person (St. Teresa) on the way to attain perfection.
Despise the world. Despise no man.
Despise yourself. Despise being despised.
‘* Be it so,” observed our Blessed Father, ‘as re-
gards the three first sayings, but, in regard to the
fourth, to my mind, the very highest degree of
humility consists in loving and cherishing con-
tempt, and in being glad to be despised. David so
acted, when he showed himself pleased to be de-
pised as a buffoon by his own wife Michol. St.
Paul, too, gloried in having been scourged, stoned,
and looked upon as a fool, the off-scouring and very
refuse of the world. The Apostles came forth re-
joicing from the presence of the Councils in which,
for the love of Jesus, they had been loaded with
opprobrium, contumely, and contempt. A really
humble man despising himself, is only too glad to
Upon some spiritual Maxims 167
find others ready to agree with him, and to help
him to humble himself. He receives reproaches as
God’s good gift, and deems himself unworthy of
aught else.”
He had something, too, to say about the first
three maxims. Taking the world in the sense of
the universe, it is, he said, a great stage, on which
are shown the wonders of Almighty God, all of
Whose works are very good—nay, are perfect.
But, even taking the word “‘world ” in the sense in
which it is mostly used in Scripture, meaning the
company of the wicked, he said, that we should in-
deed despise their vices, yet not themselves; for
who knows but that they will in the end, be con-
verted? How many vessels of contempt have been,
by the change of the right hand of God, trans-
formed into vessels of honour?
To despise no one, which is the second dictum,
seems at first sight to contradict the first, if, by
‘the world °? be meant the vicious and not merely
their vices. It is certainly very right to despise no
one, but it is still more reasonable and more advan-
tageous to ourselves, who wish to advance in per-
fection, to value and esteem all men, because created
by God to His image, and because fitted for par-
taking of His grace and of His glory.
The third maxim, which tells us to despise our-
selves, also needs some explanation. We ought
not under pretence of humility to slight and despise
the graces which God has given us. To do so
would be to throw ourselves over the precipice of
ingratitude in order to avoid perishing in the pit-
fall of vanity. ‘‘ Nothing,’’ said he, ‘‘can so
humble us before the mercy of God, as the multi-
168 The Spirit of St Francis De Sales
tude of his benefits; nothing can so abase us before
the throne of His justice, as the countless number
of our misdeeds. We need never fear that the
good things God has given us will feed our pride,
as long as we remember that whatever there may
be in us that is good, it is not of us.”
Upon PATIENCE.
I was complaining to him one day of a great
injury which had been done to me. He answered,
“ To anybody but you I should try to apply some
soothing balm of consolation, but your circum-
stances, and the pure love which I bear to you,
dispense me from this act of courtesy. I have no
oil to pour into your wound, and, indeed, were I
to affect to sympathise with you, it might only in-
crease the pain of the wound you have received.
I have nothing but vinegar and cleansing salt to
pour in, and I must simply put in practice the
command of the Apostle: Reprove, entreat.* You
finished your complaint by saying that great and
tried patience was needful to enable a man to bear
such attacks in silence. Certainly, your patience
is not of so high a stamp, since you reserve to
yourself the privilege of lamentation! ”’
“ But, Father,’’ I replied, “‘ you see it is only
into your heart that I pour out my sorrow. Whena
child is troubled to whom should it turn if not to
its kind father?” ‘* You, a child, indeed; and for
how long do you mean to go on clinging to your
childhood? Is it right that one who is the father
of others, one to whom God has given the rank
of a Bishop in His Church, should play the child?
* 2 Tim ive
Upon Patience 169
:' When we are children, says St. Paul, we may
speak as children, but not when we are become
men. The lisping which pleases us in a baby 1s
altogether unsuitable for a sturdy boy. Do you
wish me to give you milk and pap instead of solid
food? Am I like a nurse to breathe softly on your
hurt? Are not your teeth strong enough to mas-
ticate bread, the hard bread of suffering? Have
you forgotten how to eat bread? Are your teeth
set on edge by eating sour grapes? It is a fine
thing, indeed, for you to complain to an earthly
father, you, who ought to be saying with David to
your heavenly Father: I was dumb and I opened
not my mouth, because thou hast done it.*
‘ But,’ you will say, ‘it is not God but wicked
men who have done this to me!’
Ah, indeed! and do you forget that it is what
is called the permissive will of God which makes
use of the malice of men, either to correct you
or to exercise you in virtue? Job says: The Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away.t He does
not say: The devil and the thieves took my goods
and my dear ones from me: he sees only the hand
of God which does all these things by such instru-
ments as it pleases Him to use. You seem unfor-
tunately to have no wish to rank yourself with him
who said that the rod and staff with which God
struck him brought him consolation ;{ and that he
was like a man helpless and abandoned, yet, never-
theless, free from the dead;§ that he was as one
deaf and dumb, who paid no heed to the insults
poured into his ears;{] that he was humbled in
*Psalm xxxviii. 10. tJob i. 21.
{Psalm xxii. 4. §Psalm Ixxxvii. 5, 6. QYPsalm xxxvii. 15.
170 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the dust, and kept silence even from good words,
which might have served to justify him and to
defend his innocence.
‘But, Father,’ you continue, ‘how is it that
you have become so harsh, and have changed your
gentleness, as Job says to Almighty God, into
cruelty? Where is your unfailing compassion ? ’
I answer, my compassion is as great and as sin-
cere as ever; for God knows how much I love you,
since I love you more than myself, and how I
should reproach myself if I allowed my heart to
be hardened against you. It is, however, too clear
that the injury you have received is resented by
you, since you complain of it. We do not usually
complain of what pleases us, quite the reverse, we
are glad and rejoice and expect to be congratulated,
not pitied. Witness the great parables of the find-
ing of the lost sheep and the lost groat.’
‘Well,’ you reply, ‘and do you really want
me to tell you that black looks exhilarate me, and
that I can bear smoke puffed in my face without
even sneezing? ’
O man of little faith and of most limited
patience! What then of our Gospel maxims as
to giving our cheek to the smiter, and our beard to
those who pluck it out; what of the beatitude of
the persecuted; of the giving our coat to him who
takes away our cloak; of blessing those who curse
us; of a cordial and hearty love of our enemies?
Are these sayings, think you, only curiosities to
be put in a cabinet; are they not rather those seals
of the Spouse, which He desires us to set upon
our hearts and our arms, on our thoughts and on
our works ?
Upon Patience val
Well, well, I pardon you from indulgence, to
use the expression of the Apostle, but, on condition
that you will be more courageous for the future,
and that you will shut up tightly in the casket of
silence all like favours which God sends to you,
so as not to let their perfume escape, and that
you will render thanks in your heart to our Father
in Heaven, Who deigns to bestow upon you a tiny
splinter from the Cross of His Son. What! you
delight in wearing a heavy cross of gold upon
your breast, and you cannot bear the weight of one
light as is your owr upon your heart, but must
needs try to rid yourself of it by complaining!
Then, again, even when it is gone, you must needs
talk about what you have put up with, and would
like me to consider you patient merely because you
do not openly resent the wrong done you. As if
the great virtue of patience consisted only in the
not revenging yourself, and not much more, as it
really does, in uttering no word of complaint.
‘* Moreover, it appears to me that you are quite
wrong in so much as talking about being patient
under injuries such as you have suffered. Patience
is too distinguished a virtue to be needed for so
trivial an act—the lesser good qualities of modera-
tion, forbearance, and silence would amply suffice.
In silence and in hope shall your strength be.’’*
So he dismissed me, ashamed of myself, it is true,
but, like the giant of fable, strengthened by having
fallen. On leaving him I felt as if all the insults
in the world would henceforth fail to make me
utter one single word of complaint. I was much
consoled afterwards by coming across, in one of
*Isaaah xx. 15.
172 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
his letters, the same remark about moderation and
forbearance as he had then addressed to me. He
writes: “Nothing can have a more tranquillizing
effect upon us in this world than the frequent con-
sideration of the afflictions, necessities, contempt,
calumnies, insults, and humiliations which our
Lord suffered from His birth to His most painful
death. When we contemplate such a weight of
bitterness as this, are we not wrong in giving to the
trifling misfortunes which befall us, even the names
of adversities and injuries? Are we not ashamed
to ask a share of His divine patience to help us
to bear such trifles as these, seeing that the
smallest modicum of moderation and humility
would suffice to make us bear calmly the insults
offered to us?”
How TO PROFIT BY BEARING WITH INSULTS.
He used to say that a harvest of virtues could be
gathered in from a crop of affronts and injuries,
because they offer us in abundance opportunities
of making such acts as the following:
1. Of justice: for who is there that has not sinned
and consequently has not deserved punishment?
Has anyone offended you? Well, think how often
you have offended God! Surely, therefore, it is
meet that creatures, the instruments of His justice,
Should punish you.
2. But perhaps you were justly accused? Well,
if so, simply acknowledge your fault, asking par-
don of God as well as of men, and be grateful to
those who have accused you, even though they
have done it in such a manner as to add unnecessary
bitterness to your suffering. Remember that
How to profit by bearing with insults 173
medicines are none the less salutary for being
nauseous.
3. But may-be you were accused falsely? If so,
calmly and quietly, but without hesitation, bear
witness to the truth. We owe this to our neigh-
bours, who might, if we were silent, believe the
charge brought against us, and thus be greatly dis-
edified.
4. Yet, if, after this, people persist in blaming
you, abandon any further defence of yourself, and
conquer by silence, modesty, and patience.
5. Prudence has its own part to play in the con-
flict; for there is no better way of dealing with
insults than by treating them with contempt. He
who gives way to anger looks as if he acknow-
ledged the truth of the accusation.
6. Discretion, too, comes to the aid of prudence
by counselling toleration.
7. Courage in all its power and grandeur raises
you above yourself.
8. Temperance bridles your passions and curbs
them into submission.
9. Humility will make you love and value your
humiliation.
10. Faith will, as St. Paul says, stop the mouths
of lions, and more than this, it will, he says, set
before our eyes for our loving contemplation and
imitation Jesus Christ Himself, overwhelmed with
insults and calumnies, yet silent, unmoved, as one
who hears not and is dumb.
11. Hope will hold out before you an imperish-
able crown, the reward of your trials and suffer-
ings which endure but for a moment.
12. Charity, last of all, will come to you and
174 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
abide with you—charity, patient and sweet, benign
and yielding, believing all, hoping all, enduring
all, ready and willing to suffer all.
The more we value our eternal salvation the
more heartily shall we welcome suffering.
UPON BEARING WITH IMPORTUNITIES.
Blessed Francis laid great stress upon the
necessity of patience when we are importuned.
“ Yet,” he would say, ‘‘ patience seems almost too
great a power to invoke in this matter. In reality
a little gentleness, forbearance, and self-control
ought to suffice. Still, when we speak of patience it
must not be as if it were to be employed only in
the endurance of really great evils, for, while we
are waiting for these notable occasions that occur
rarely ina lifetime, we neglect the lesser ones. We
imagine that our patience is capable of putting up
with great sufferings and affronts, and we give
way to impatience under the sting or bite of an
insect. We fancy that we could help, wait upon,
and relieve our neighbour in long or severe sick-
ness, and yet we cannot bear that same reighbour’s
ill-bred manner, and irritating moods, his awkward-
ness and incivility, and above all his importunity,
especially if he comes just at the wrong moment
to talk to us about matters which seem to us
frivolous and unimportant.
We triumphantly excuse ourselves for our
impatience on these occasions by ,alleging our
deeps sense of the value of time ; that one only thing,
says an ancient writer, ,;with regard to which avarice
is laudable.
But we fail to see that we employ this precious
That he who complains sins 175
time in doing many things far more vain and idle
than in the satisfying the claims of our neighbour,
and possibly less important than those about which
he talks to us, occasioning what we call loss of
time.
When we are conversing with others we should
try to please them and to show that their con-
versation is agreeable to us, and when we are alone
we should take pleasure in solitude. Unfortunately,
however, our minds are so inconsistent that we are
always looking behind us, like Lot’s wife. In
company we sigh for solitude, and in solitude, in-
stead of enjoying its sweets, we hanker after the
company of others.”
THAT HE WHO COMPLAINS SINS.
One of Blessed Francis’ most frequent sayings
was: He who complains, seldom does so without
sinning. Now, you are anxious to know what
exactly he meant by this, and if it is not allowable
to complain to superiors of wrongs which have
been done us, and when we are ill, to seek relief
from suffering, by describing our pains to the
physician, so that he may apply to them the proper
remedies.
To put this interpretation on the words of Blessed
Francis is to overstrain their meaning. The letter
killeth, and needs to be interpreted by the spirit
that quickeneth, that is, to be taken gently and
sweetly.
Our Blessed Father condemns complaining when
it borders upon murmuring. He used to say that
those who thus complained sinned, because our
self-love always magnifies unduly any wrongs done
176 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
to ourselves, weighing them in the most deceitful
of balances, and applying the most extravagant
epithets to things which if done by us to others
we should pass over as not worth a thought.
He did not consider it at all wrong to claim
from a court of justice, quietly, calmly, and dis-
passionately, reparation of injuries done to our
property, person, or honour. He has, indeed,
devoted a whole chapter in his Philothea* to
demonstrating that we may, without failing in
humility or charity, do what is necessary for the
preservation of our good name. But human weak-
ness is such that it is difficult even in a court of
justice to keep our temper and retain a proper
equanimity: hence the proverb that, in a hundred-
weight of law, there is not so much as an ounce of
good nature.
It was also his wish that when sick we should
state what ails us quite simply and straightfor-
wardly to those who can relieve us, always remem-
bering that God commands us to honour the
physician.f To Philothea he says: “ When you
are ill offer your sufferings, pains, and weakness
to the service of our Lord, and entreat Him to
unite them to the torments which He endured for
you. Obey the physician; take medicine, food, and
other remedies for the love of God; remembering
the gall which He accepted for love of you.
Desire to recover your health that you may serve
Him, but, if He so will, do not refuse to linger
long upon your bed of pain, so as to obey Him;
in fine, be ready to die if that is His pleasure, that
you may praise and enjoy Him.’’t
*Part iii. chap. vil.
¢Eccles. xxxviii. 1,-12. {Part iii. chap. 3.
That he who complains sins 177
It was his opinion that when we complain, how-
ever justly, a certain amount of self-love is always
at the bottom of the complaint, and that a habit
of grumbling is a positive proof of our being too
tender of ourselves and too cowardly.
After all, of what use are complaints? They do
but beat the air and serve to prove that if we suffer
wrong it is with regret, with sadness, and not with-
out some desire of revenging ourselves. An un-
greased wheel makes the most noise in turning, and
in like manner, he who has the least patience is
the first to grumble.
We must remember, however, that all men
deceive themselves. Those who complain do not
mean to be considered impatient. On the contrary,
they tell you that if it were not this particular thing,
they would speak and act differently; but that, as
it is, if God did not forbid vengeance they would
assuredly take it in the most signal manner.
Poor Israelites! really brought out of Egypt, but
yet still hankering after the leeks and garlic of that
miserable country! Truly such feebleness of mind
is pitiable, and most unworthy of a soul avowedly
consecrated to the service of the Cross of Jesus
Christ.
It is not that we are absolutely forbidden to com-
plain under great sufferings of body or mind, or
under great losses. Job, the mirror of the patient,
uttered many complaints, yet without prejudice to
that virtue which made him so highly esteemed by
God, and renders him famous in all ages. It would
not only be unwise, but possibly a sin, so to con-
ceal bodily suffering—under the pretext of being
resolved not to complain—as to refuse to have
M
178 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
recourse to either physician or remedies, and
thereby to risk bringing ourselves down to the
gates of the grave.
Even God, the All-Perfect, does not refrain
from pouring forth His complaints against sinners,
as we know from many parts of Holy Scripture.
We must then in this matter preserve a just
medium, and although it behoves us sometimes to
suffer in silence, yet at other times we must make
known our sufferings, since that suffering is truly
the most wretched which, amid torments, has no
voice.*
The Son of God, the pattern of all perfection,
wept and cried aloud at the grave of Lazarus and
on the Cross, showing that He pities our sufferings
and shares our griefs. The measure of our com-
plainings must be fixed by discretion, which St.
Anthony calls the regent and ruler of the king-
dom of virtues, appointed to guard it from the
encroachments of sin, ever Striving to gain
dominion there.
Our Blessed Father gives us the following lesson
on the subject: ‘‘ We must,’’ he says, ‘‘ abstain
from a but little noticed, yet most hurtful
imperfection, against which few people guard them-
selves. This is, that when we are compelled to
blame our neighbour or to complain of his con-
duct, which should be as seldom as possible, we
never seem to get done with the matter, but go
on perpetually repeating our complaints and
lamentations; a sure sign of irritation and peevish-
ness and of a heart as yet destitute of true charity.
Great and powerful minds only make mourning
* Virgil, Æneid I.
Blessed Francis calmness in tribulation 179
about great matters, and even these they dismiss
as quickly as possible, never giving way to passion
or fretfulness.”’
BLESSED FRANCIS’ CALMNESS IN TRIBULATION.
The similitude of the nest of the halcyon or
kingfisher, supposed to float on the sea, which our
Saint describes so well and applies so exquisitely
in one of his letters, was the true picture of his
own heart. The great stoic, Seneca, says that it
is easy to guide a vessel on a smooth sea and aided
by favourable winds, but that it is in the midst of
tempests and hurricanes that the skill of the pilot
is shown.* So it is with the soul, whose fidelity
and loyalty towards the Divine Lover is well tested
by sufferings and sorrows.
The more he was crossed, the more he was upset,
and, like the palm tree, the more violently the
winds beat against him, the deeper and stronger
roots he threw out. His own words express this
truth so perfectly as to leave no doubt on the sub-
ject. He says: ‘‘For some time past the many
secret contradictions and oppositions which have
invaded my tranquil life have brought with them
so calm and sweet a peace that nothing can be
compared to it. Indeed, I cannot help thinking
that they foretell the near approach of that entire
union of my soul with God, which is not only the
greatest but the sole ambition and passion of my
heart.’’
Oh! blessed servant of Jesus Christ, how abso-
lutely you practised that teaching which you
impress so strongly on us in your Theotimus,
*Senec, De Providentia, cap. iv.
180 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
in the words of blessed Brother Giles.
‘“One to one! one soul to one only love! one
heart to one only God! ”
To that only God, the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, be honour and glory for ever and ever!
Amen.
BLESSED FRANCIS’ TEST OF PATIENCE IN SUFFERING.
One day he was visiting a sick person who, in
the midst of intense suffering, not only showed
great patience in all her words and actions, but
plainly had the virtue deeply rooted in her heart.
‘“ Happy woman,’’ said Blessed Francis, ‘‘ who
has found the honey-comb in the jaws of the lion! ”’
Wishing, however, to make more certain that the
patience she showed was solid and real, rooted and
grounded in Christian charity, and such as to
make her endure her sufferings for the love and
for the glory of God alone, he determined to try
her. He began to praise her constancy, to enlarge
upon her sufferings, to express admiration at her
courage, her silence, her good example, knowing
that in this way he would draw from her lips the
true language of her heart.
Nor was he deceived, for she, sincere and abso-
lutely patient Christian that she was, answered
him: ‘“ Ah! Father, you do not see the rebellious
struggles of all my senses and feelings. In the
lower region of my soul everything is in confusion
and disorder, and if the grace and fear of God were
not to us as a tower of strength I should long ago
have altogether given way and rebelled against
God. Picture me to yourself as like the Prophet
whom the Angel carried by one hair of his head;
Blessed Francis’ test of patience in suffering 181
my patience, as it were, hangs on a single thread,
and were it not for the mighty help God is to me
I should long ere now have been in hell.
It is not then my virtue but the grace of God in
me which makes me show so much courage. My
own part in the matter is but pretence and
hypocrisy. Were I to follow my own impulses I
should moan, struggle, break out into passionate
and bitter words, but God restrains my lips with bit
and bridle, so that J dare not murmur under the
blows dealt by His hand which I have learnt
through His grace to love and honour.”
Our Blessed Father, on leaving her sick-room,
said to those who were with him, ‘‘ She has, indeed,
true and christian patience. Instead of pitying
her for her sufferings we ought rather to rejoice
over them, for this high virtue is only made per-
fect in infirmity. But do you notice how God
hides from her own eyes the perfection which He is
giving her? Her patience is not only courageous,
but loving and humble; like pure balm, which,
when unadulterated, sinks to the bottom of the
water into which it is cast. Be careful, however,
not to repeat to her what I have just said to you
lest, by doing so, you should excite in her move-
ments of vanity, and spoil the whole work of grace,
whose waters only flow through the valley of
humility.
Let her peacefully possess her soul in patience,
for she is at peace even in this extremity of bitter-
ness.”’
UPON LONG ILLNESSES.
Violent sicknesses either pass quickly or they
carry us to the grave; slow maladies drag wearily
182 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
on and exercise the patience of the sufferers, nor
less that of those who tend them.
Our Blessed Father says on the subject: ‘* Long
sicknesses are good schools of mercy for those who
wait upon the sick and of loving patience for those
who suffer.
They who wait upon the sick are at the foot of
the Cross with our Lady and St. John, whose com-
passion they imitate; the sick man himself is on
the Cross with our Saviour, Whose Passion he
imitates.
But how can we imitate either this compassion
or this Passion if we do not suffer from the motive
of the love of God? For the Blessed Virgin and
St. John, the beloved Disciple, were moved by a
compassion as much more sorrowful than ours, as
their love for the Crucified, their own dearest
Lord, was greater than ours can be. It was at the
foot of the Cross that the sword of grief pierced
Mary’s soul, and it was there that the beloved
disciple drank that chalice of bitterness, which,
after permitting him to share the glories of Thabor,
the Saviour predicted should be his.”
The whole life of a true Christian is one long
period of suffering. Those who endure not with
Jesus Christ are not fit to reign with Him. “O
soul in grace,” says our Blessed Father, ‘‘ thou
art not yet the spouse of Jesus glorified, but of
Jesus crucified. This is why the rings, necklaces,
and other ornaments which He gives you, and with
which He is pleased to adorn you, are crosses,
nails, and thorns; and the marriage feast He sets
before you gall, hyssop, and vinegar. It is in
Heaven we shall possess the rubies, diamonds, and
Blessed Francis’ holy indifference in illness 183
emeralds, the wine, the manna, and the honey.”
The world is a vast quarry in which are hewn
out and shaped those living stones which are to
build up the heavenly Jerusalem, as the Church
sings:
Tunsionibus, pressurts,
Expoliti lapides
Suis cooptantur locis,
Per manus Artificis:
Disponuntur permansurt
Sacris edificus .*
Thou too, O Church, which here we see,
No easy task hath builded thee.
Long did the chisels ring around !
Long did the mallet’s blows rebound !
Long worked the head, and toiled the hand !
Ere stood thy stones as now they stand,
BLESSED FRANCIS’ HOLY INDIFFERENCE IN ILLNESS.
As regards our Blessed Father’s patience in
time of sickness, I myself was with him in one only
of his illnesses, but others, who saw him in many
and were frequent witnesses of his patience, gentle-
ness, and absolute indifference to suffering, tell us
marvels on that subject.
For my part, on the one occasion when I saw him
stretched upon his bed, suffering with so much
endurance and sweetness, the sight at once recalled
to me what St. Catherine of Genoa tells us of a
certain soul in Purgatory. This poor soul she
represented as so perfectly united to God by charity
that it was physically unable to utter the slightest
complaint, or to have the faintest shadow of a desire,
which was not absolutely in conformity with the
*Office of the Dedication of a Church.
184 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
divine will. Such souls, she says, wish to be in
Purgatory exactly as long as God shall please, and
this, with a will so contented and so constant, that
for nothing in the whole world would they be else-
where unless it were His will. This is exactly
how our Blessed Father suffered, without in any
way losing heart, because of the services which he
might have been able to render to God and his
neighbour had he been in health. He wished to
suffer because to do so was the good pleasure of
God, Who held the keys of his life and of his death,
of his health and of his sickness, and of his whole
destiny.
If he was asked whether he would take this or
that, physic or food, whether he would he bled or
blistered, or the like, he had but one answer to
give: “‘ Do with the patient what you please, God
has put me at the disposal of the doctors.” Nothing
could be more simple or obedient than his be-
haviour, for he honoured God in the physicians,
and in their remedies, as He Himself has com-
manded us all to do.
He always told the doctors and attendants exactly
what was the matter with him, neither exaggerating
his malady by undue complaints, nor making his
suffering appear less than it really was by a forced
and unnatural composure. The first he said was
cowardice, the second dissimulation. Even al-
though the inferior and sensible part of his soul
might be under the pressure of intense pain, there
always flashed out from his face, and especially
from his eyes, rays of that calm light which
illumined the superior and reasonable part of his
nature, shining through the dark clouds of bodily
Upon the shape of the Cross m
affliction. Hence the weaker his body, the
stronger became his spirit, enabling him to say
with the Apostle :
Gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities,
That the power of Christ may dwell in me.*
UPON THE SHAPE OF THE CROSS.
(9
“The Cross,” Blessed Francis says, ‘‘is com-
posed of two pieces of wood, which represent to us
two excellent virtues, necessary to those who desire
to be fastened to it with Jesus Christ, and on it to
live a dying life, and on it to die the death which
is life. These two great virtues most due to
christians are humility and patience.’’
He wished, however, that those two virtues
should be rooted and grounded in charity, that is
to say, not only be practised in charity, that is, in a
state of grace, without which they are of no value
for Heaven, but also from the motive of charity.
This is how he expresses himself :—
‘Divine love will teach you that in imitation of
the great Lover we must be on the Cross in com-
pany with humility, deeming ourselves unworthy
to endure anything for Him Who endured so much
for us; and in company with patience, so as not to
wish to come down from the Cross, not even all
our life long if so it pleases the Eternal Father.
The motto of Blessed Teresa was, To suffer or to
die; for divine iove had attached this faithful
servant of Jesus crucified so closely to the Cross
that she wished not to live, save that she might
have opportunities of suffering for Him. >
"3 Cor. sii. g:
186 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
The great and seraphic St. Francis considered
that God had forgotten him and lovingly com-
plained when he had passed a day untouched by
any suffering; and just as he called poverty his
mistress, so he called pain his sister.”
Our Blessed Father’s motto was ‘‘ To love or to
die.’ In his Treatise on the Love of God he cries
out: ‘‘ To love, or to die! To die and to love! To
die to all other love in order to live to Jesus’ love,
that we may not die eternally, but that living in
Thy eternal love, O Saviour of our souls, we may
eternally sing, Vive Jesus. Live Jesus. I love
Jesus. Live Jesus, Whom I love! I love Jesus,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.’’*
A DIAMOND CROSS.
It was one day reported very seriously to Blessed
Francis as though it were some misdemeanor, that
one of his penitents who was accustomed to wear on
her breast a rich diamond ornament, had had the
diamonds made up into a cross which she wore in
the same manner as before, and that this was a
cause of scandal to certain persons. ‘* Ah! he cried,
how true it is that the Cross is an occasion of
scandal to some, and of edification to others! I do
not know who advised this lady to do what she has
done, but for my part I am much edified, and only
wish that all the gew-gaws and trinkets worn by
women could be altered in the same holy manner.
That would indeed be to make vessels of the Taber-
nacle out of their mirrors.” f
Among his letters I came across lately and with
much pleasure, one which I think must have
“Book xii. c. 13. tExod. xxxviii. 8.
A diamond cross 187
been written to this very lady. In it he says: ‘‘When
I last had the pleasure of seeing you, dear madam,
you were wearing outwardly on your heart a cross;
love it fervently, I beseech you. Itisall gold if you
look at it with loving eyes. On one side it is true
that you see the Beloved of your heart, dead, cruci-
fied amid nails and thorns; but on the other side
you will find a cluster of precious stones ready to
adorn the crown of glory which awaits you, if only,
meanwhile, you wear lovingly the crown of thorns
with your King who willed to suffer so much that
He might enter into His joy.”
To a lady advanced in years and distinguished
by her piety, who was living in my diocese, and
whom, out of reverence and affection, he used to
call his mother, he wrote as follows, when the in-
firmities of old age were pressing heavily upon her:
“ I see very plainly that you must from henceforth
accustom yourself to the maladies and infirmities
which declining years bring with them. Ah, dear
Lord! What happiness for a soul dedicated to God,
to be much tried by suffering, before quitting this
life! My dearest mother, how can we learn the
lesson of generous and fervent love save amid
thorns, crosses, languor, and faintness, and more
especially when these sufferings are prolonged and
lingering. Our dear Saviour showed us the
measure of His boundless love by that of His
labours, and of His sufferings. Show, my dear
mother, your love to the Bridegroom of your heart
on the bed of pain; for it was on that bed that He
fashioned your heart, even before it came into
existence, He beholding it as yet only in His divine
plan. Ah! this Divine Saviour has reckoned up
188 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
all your pains, all your sorrows, and has paid with
His Precious Blood for all the patience and the love
which you need in order rightly to direct your
labours to His glory and to your own salvation.
Content yourself with calmly desiring to be all that
God wills you to be.”
HoLy MAGDALEN AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS.
Our Blessed Father had a special reverence for
the picture of Magdalen at the foot of the Cross,
calling it sometimes the library of his thoughts.
Perhaps this representation was before his mind’s
eye, when just before he rendered up his soul to
God he murmured these words: Wash me yet more
from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.*
““Oh!” he exclaimed, when he was looking one
day at this picture in my house at Belley, ‘* how
happy, and how profitable an exchange this peni-
tent made! She bestowed tears on the Feet of Jesus
Christ, and in return those Feet gave back to her
Blood, but Blood that washed away all her sins, for
Christ has cleansed us from every stain in His
Blood, and by the sprinkling of this hyssop has
made us, coal-black though we were, white as
snow! Oh, gracious rain made by God to fall upon
His inheritance, how sweet, how much to be de-
sired thou art! ”
‘Magdalen seeks our Saviour while she holds
Him. She demands Him of Himself. She does
not see Him in the form she looked for: therefore,
unsatisfied, she seeks Him away from Himself.
She expected to see Him in His robe of glory,
not in the poor garb of a gardener; nevertheless
*Psalm 1. 4.
Holy Magdalen at the foot of the Cross 1 9?
she knew that it was He when He uttered her name
Mary .*
My dear sister, my daughter, it is our Lord in
the clothing of a gardener whom you meet every
day in one place or. another, and in the various
mortifications which present themselves to you.
You wish He would offer you grander mortifica-
tions. Oh! my God! the grandest are not the
best. Do you not believe that He says to you also
Mary, Mary? Ah! before you see Him in His
glory, He wishes to plant in your garden many
flowers, small and lowly indeed, but such as He
loves. That is why He wears a gardener’s dress.
May our hearts be for ever united to His Heart,
and our wills to His good pleasure.”
UPON THE POWER OF GENTLENESS AND
PATIENCE.
An ecclesiastic in Blessed Francis’ diocese, had,
because of his vicious and scandalous life, been
sent to prison. After a few days’ sojourn there he
testified the deepest repentance, and with tears and
promises of amendment entreated the officers of the
prison to allow him to be taken to the Holy Prelate,
who had already pardoned many of his offences,
that he might at his feet plead again for forgive-
ness.
This request was at first refused, as the officers
considered that his scandalous life deserved punish-
ment, if only as an example to others, and they
knew that with Blessed Francis, to see a sinner was
to pity and forgive him.
At last, however, they yielded to the priest’s pas-
¥John xx. 16.
190 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
sionate entreaties, and he was taken before his
Bishop. Throwing himself on his knees before the
Holy Man, he implored mercy, declaring that he
would lead a new life, and set an example of all that
was edifying, whereas before he had given nothing
but scandal. Blessed Francis on his part knelt
down before the culprit, and with many tears, ad-
dressed these remarkable words to him: ‘‘ I, too,”
he said, ‘“‘ ask you to have pity upon me, and upon
all of us who are priests in this diocese, upon the
Church, and upon the Catholic, Apostolic, and
Roman religion, the honour of which you are ruin-
ing by your scandalous life. For that life gives
occasion to the adversaries of our Faith, who are
always on the watch like dragons to detect our
slightest failings, to condemn us. For a priest to
sin, I tell you, is to give occasion to devils to mock
at the lives of our clergy, and to blaspheme our
Holy Faith. I ask you also to have pity on your-
self, and on your own soul which you are losing
for all eternity, and to seek anew God’s favour. I
exhort you in the name of Jesus Christ to return to
God by atrue repentance. I conjure you to do this
‘by all that is most holy, and sacred in Heaven, or
on earth, by the Blood of Jesus Christ which you
profane, by the lovingkindness of the Saviour,
whom you crucify afresh, by the Spirit of Grace
against whom you are rebelling.’’ These remon-
strances, or rather the Spirit of God speaking by
the mouth of this zealous Pastor, had such effect
that the guilty man was by this change of the Right
Hand of the Most High converted into a perfectly
different being, and became as notable an example
of virtue as he had been an occasion of scandal.
Upon the power of Gentleness and Patience 191
Again—There was in his diocese a certain eccle-
siastic who for very grave faults, and for the
scandal occasioned by them, was not only im-
prisoned and treated while in prison with the
greatest severity, but moreover, after regaining his
liberty, remained for six months suspended from
all ecclesiastical functions.
Our Blessed Father most unwillingly yielded to
the entreaties of the officers of justice not in any
way to interfere in the matter, but to let the
law take its course, and to leave the offender
in their hands to be treated with exceptional
rigour.
So little, however, did this mode of dealing with
the criminal answer, that, though while in prison
he had been tractable, humble, lavish of promises
of amendment, and apparently penitent, when once
he had shaken off his fetters he relapsed into all his
old evil habits, and passed from bad to worse. The
authorities were in fine constrained to deprive him
of his benefice, and to banish him from the diocese.
A few years later a very similar case occurred
in which the officers showed the same unwillingness
to permit the intervention of Blessed Francis, and
this from no want of respect or love for him, but,
as before, from a fear lest his gentleness and
charity should hinder the course of justice.
In this case, however, the holy Bishop was firm.
“If, he said, “‘ you forbid him to appear before
me, you will not forbid me to appear before him.
You do not wish him to come out of prison, suffer
me then to go to prison with him, and to be the
companion of his captivity. We must comfort this
poor brother, who entreats us for help. I promise
192 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
you that he shall not leave the prison except with
your leave.”
Accompanied by the officers of justice he then
proceeded to the prison. No sooner did he see the
poor man kneeling humbly before his Bishop, and
accusing himself of his sins, than the holy Prelate
embraced him tenderly, and turning to his gaolers
said: ‘‘Is it possible that you do not see that God
has already pardoned this man? Is there any con-
demnation for one who is in Christ Jesus? If God
justifies him, who shall condemn him? Certainly
not L.”
Then, turning to the culprit, he said: ‘Go in
peace, my brother, and sin no more. I know that
you are truly penitent.”
The officials protested that the man was a hypo-
crite, and like that other suspended priest would
himself soon show that they were right. “‘ It is,
however, possible,” replied the Saint, “‘ that had
you treated that other priest with lenity, he, too,
would have truly repented; beware, then, lest his
soul should one day be required at your hands.
For my part, if you will accept me as this man’s
bail, I am ready to pledge my word for his good
behaviour. I am certain that he is sincerely re-
pentant, and even if he is deceiving me, he will do
more injury to himself than to me, or others.”
The guilty man, bursting into tears, declared
himself willing to undergo any penance that might
be imposed upon him, and even to give up his bene-
fice of his own accord, if the Bishop should judge
this to be the proper course.
‘“ I should be much grieved if you were to take
that step,” replied Blessed Francis, ‘‘ the more so as
I hope that, just as the steeple in falling crushed
Upon the power of Gentleness and Patience 193
the church, so now being set up again it will make
it more beautiful than before.”
The officials gave way, the prison doors were
thrown open, and after a month’s suspension,
a divinis, the penitent resumed all the duties of his
sacred office. henceforth he lived so holy and
exemplary a life as fully to verify the predictions
of his holy Bishop, who, when these two memor-
able instances, one of perversion and the other of
conversion, were once afterwards discussed before
him, said: “It is better by gentleness to make
penitents than by severity to make hypocrites.”
I will now relate some other instances of Blessed
Francis’ extraordinary gentleness and of its soften-
ing effect upon others.
He had made himself surety for a considerable
sum of money for one of his friends, who, at the
time when payment was due, happened to be in
Piedmont levying troops for the service of His
Highness the Duke of Savoy.
The creditor becoming impatient for the dis-
charge of the debt, applied to the good Bishop, and
insisted upon his making the money good, paying
no attention whatever either to his gentle remon-
strances, or to his assurances that the debtor,
though unable at present to leave his troops, would
do so as soon as was consistent with his duty to his
Prince and his country, and that meantime his
regular payment of the interest, and the knowledge
that he was worth a hundred times more than the
sum owing, ought surely to satisfy the creditor.
Blessed Francis remained perfectly calm and un-
moved amid the storm of invectives and reproaches
that followed this remonstrance, and which were
N
194 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
accompanied by furious demands reiterated again
and again, that he himself as surety should repay
the money.
At last, speaking with incredible gentleness, the
Saint said: ‘f Son, I am your Pastor. Can you as
one of my flock, have the heart to take the bread
out of my mouth in place of helping to feed me?
You know that I am much straitened in circum-
stances, and have really only barely enough for my
maintenance. I have never had in my possession
the sum which you demand of me, but for which,
out of charity, I made myself surety: do you wish
to seize for it my goods, rather than those of the
real debtor? Well, if so, I have some patrimony.
I give it up to you: there is my furniture. Turn it
all out into the public square, and sell it. I put
myself absolutely into your hands to do as you
please. I only ask of you to love me for God’s
sake, and not to offend Him in any way by anger,
hatred, or scandal. If you will do this I am con-
tent.”
The only reply to this was a fresh outburst of
furious invectives and accusations, to which our
Blessed Father replied with unalterable serenity :
“ Sir, since my indiscretion in making myself surety
for my friend is the cause of your anger, I will with
all the haste possible do what I can to satisfy you.
At the same time, I wish you to know that had you
plucked out one of my eyes, I would have looked
as affectionately at you with the other, as at the
dearest friend I have in the world.”
The creditor retired, covered indeed with con-
fusion, but still muttering injurious words, and
calling the holy Bishop a hypocrite, a bigot, and
Upon the power of Gentleness and Patience 195
the like. Blessed Francis immediately sent an
account of the affair to the real debtor, who came
as quickly as was possible and at once discharged
the debt. The creditor, full of shame and repen-
tance, hastened to ask pardon of our Blessed
Father, and he, receiving the prodigal with open
arms, treated him ever afterwards with special ten-
derness, calling him his friend regained.
Again, when he was in Paris in 1619, having
gone there with the Cardinal of Savoy, who wished
to be present at the marriage of his brother, the
Prince of Piedmont, with Madame Christine of
France, the King’s sister, our Blessed Father was
told that a man of tolerably good position profess-
ing the so-called Reformed Religion wished to see
him.`
Introduced into the Bishop’s apartment, the
Protestant, without the smallest sign of reverence,
or even courtesy, addressed him in these words:
‘“ Are you what they call the Bishop of
Geneva? ”
“ Sir,” replied our holy Prelate, ‘‘that is my
title, though in that city I am not so much in request
as I am in the other parts of the diocese committed
to my charge.”
“Well, I should just like to know from you, who
are regarded everywhere as an apostolic man,
whether the Apostles were in the habit of going
about in carriages? ”
Our Blessed Father, in telling me this story,
owned that he was somewhat taken aback by the
suddenness of this attack! Collecting his thoughts,
however, and remembering the case of St. Philip
the Deacon, who, though not the Apostle of that
196 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
name, was undoubtedly an apostolic man, and who
went up. into the chariot of Queen Candace’s
eunuch, he answered quietly that they did so when
convenience required it, and the occasion for doing
so presented itself.
‘““ I should be very glad,” replied the man, scorn-
fully, “if you could show me that in Scripture.”
The Bishop quoted the instance to which we have
just referred. His opponent, not noticing the fact
of this not being St. Philip the Apostle, retorted,
‘“ But this carriage was not his own, it belonged
to the eunuch, who invited him to come up into
it.” “I never told you,” answered Francis, ‘‘ that
the carriage was his own. I only said that when
the oceasion presented itself the first preachers of
the Gospel rode in carriages.” ‘‘ But notin gilded
coaches such as yours, sir,’’ returned the Protest-
ant, ‘f nor drawn by such splendid horses, nor
driven by acoachman in such superb livery. Why,
the King himself has nothing better! This is what
I complain of ; and this it is in you which scandalizes
me. And you, above all, who play the Saint, and
whom the papists look upon as such. Fine Saints,
forsooth, who go to Paradise so much at their
easel”
Blessed Francis, seeing at once where the shoe
pinched, answered gently, “ Alas, sir, the people
of Geneva who have seized upon the property
belonging to my See have cut me down so close
as regards money that I have barely enough to live
upon in the most frugal way. As to a carriage,
I have never had one, nor money enough to buy
one.’ “ Then that splendid carriage, which is, so to
speak, regal, in which I see you every day driving
Upon the power of Gentleness and Patience 197
about the city is not your own?” rejoined the
antagonist. ‘‘ Certainly not,” replied the Bishop,
“and you are quite right in calling it regal, for
it belongs to His Majesty, and is one of those set
apart by him for people who, like myself, are
mere attendants of the Pyinces of Savoy. The
royal livery worn by the servants ought to have
Shown you this!’’ ‘* Now, indeed,” said the
Protestant, ‘‘I am satisfied, and I esteem you. I
see that you are in the right, and that, notwith-
standing, you are humble.” After some further
remarks he put some questions as to the birth and
manner of life of the Saint, and was so perfectly
contented with his replies that he quitted him with
expressions of esteem and affection, and ever after-
wards held him in the highest respect.
Again, preaching during an Advent and Lent
at Grenoble, not only a great concourse of Catholics
flocked to hear him, but also such numbers of
Protestants of the Geneva following that their
ministers became alarmed and held meetings to
decide what measures should be taken to avert a
storm, which threatened desolation to their strong-
holds and was fast emptying their conventicles.
They decided at last on a personal conflict with
their opponent, choosing one of their most furious
pastors, a man of violent temper and bitter tongue,
to argue with Blessed Francis, and, as they
expected, to worst him in acontroversy. The holy
Bishop, who had already had much practice and
success in this kind of warfare at Thonon, Ternier,
and Gaillard, the bailiwicks of his diocese which
he had brought back into the bosom of the True
Church, cheerfully agreed to the proposal. In
198 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
answer to the remonstrances of his friends, and
especially of one gentleman of Belley, a man of the
greatest probity and piety, who painted the Pro-
testant ministers in the blackest colours, and told
the Bishop that insults would literally be heaped
upon him, he replied, ‘‘ Well, that is exactly what
we want; this contempt is just what I ask. For
how great is the glory to Himself that God will
derive from my confusion!’’ On his friends remind-
ing him that he would be exposing his sacred
office to derision, ‘‘ What of that?” replied the
Bishop, ‘‘ did not our Saviour suffer shame for us
—were not insults heaped upon Him? ”
“Oh,” said the other, ‘‘ you aim too high.”
“To tell you the truth,” said our Saint, “ I am
hoping that God will give me the grace to endure
insults without end, for when we are finely
humbled He will be gloriously exalted. You will
see conversion upon conversion following the train
of this affair, a thousand falling on the left hand
and ten thousand on the right. God is wont at
all times to make our infamy redound to His
honour. Did not the Apostles come forth rejoicing
from those assemblies in which they had suffered
contumely for the name of Jesus? Take courage,
God will help us; those who hope in Him never lack
any good thing and are never confounded.”
Was it possible to carry patience further than
this? Doubtless, had the meeting taken place, the
envenomed darts of heresy would have glanced
aside from the spotless, shining shield of Faith
carried by Blessed Francis, but the devil, fearing
to be worsted in the fight, suggested so many
prudent reasons to the Protestant Minister’s
-
Upon the power of Gentleness and Patience 199
friends, who, in reality, had their doubts about
both his virtue and his capacity for conducting the
conference that they got it forbidden by the
Lieutenant of the King, though himself at that time
a heretic.
Another striking example of patience. A person
of some influence and consideration once applied
to Blessed Francis asking him to obtain an
ecclesiastical preferment for a certain Priest. The
Bishop replied that in the matter of conferring
benefices he had, of his free will, tied his own
hands, having left the choosing of fitting subjects
to the decision of a board of examiners, who were
to recommend the person to be appointed after
due examination of the merits and talents of the
candidates. As for himself, he said, he simply
presided over the meeting. Should, however, the
gentleman’s friend present himself as a candidate,
he, the Bishop, would promise to bear the recom-
mendation in mind. The petitioner felt piqued
at this answer, and quite losing his temper, replied
to the Bishop in the most disrespectful and even
insulting manner. The gentle firmness with which
his anger was met only infuriated him the
more, and he eventually lost all command over
himself. It was in vain that the Bishop tried to
soothe him by proposing to examine the claimant
privately. This had no effect.
The Saint then said gently but gravely: ‘‘ Do
you then wish me to give the charge of my sheep
blindfolded and to the first comer? Ask yourself
if there is reasonableness in such a request as you
are making? ”’
But not even this appeal to his reason turned
200 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the flood of the man’s wrath, and he quitted the
Bishop’s presence in a passion of disrespect im-
possible to describe. A most excellent Priest who
had been in the room all through the interview
asked the Bishop, after the departure of his im-
pudent visitor, how he could bear such treatment
with the patience he showed. ‘* Well,’ he
answered, “‘it was not he himself that spoke, it
was his passion. After all he is one of my best
friends, and you will see that my silence on this
occasion will only make our friendship the stronger.
More than this. Has not God from all eternity
foreseen that these insults would be offered to
me to-day, and foreseen, too, that He would bestow
on me such grace as would enable me to bear them
joyfully? Should I not drain the chalice held to
my lips by the hands of so loving a Father? Oh!
how sweet is this inebriating cup, offered to me by
a hand which from my infancy I have learnt to
adore.” ‘* But,” returned the Priest, ‘‘ were not
your feelings stirred at all by this treatment? ’’
“ Well,” replied the Bishop, ‘‘I tried to over-
come them by fixing my thoughts on the good
qualities of the man whose friendship I have so
long and so happily enjoyed. Then, too, I hope
that when this storm in a tea-cup has subsided
and the clouds of passion have lifted, my friend
will come back to me with peace in his heart and
serenity on his countenance.”’
Nor was the Saint’s expectation disappointed.
His friend did come back, and with many tears
begged his forgiveness; a forgiveness which was,
you may be sure, granted so fully and with such
loving readiness as to increase the fervour and
sincerity of their old and mutual affection.
A rejoinder both striking and instructive 201
A REJOINDER BOTH STRIKING AND INSTRUCTIVE.
In the course of his long mission in the Chablais,
he one day preached on that text which commands
us to offer the right cheek to him who smites us
on the left. As he came down from the pulpit he
was accosted by a Protestant who asked him if he
felt that he could practise what he had just preached,
or whether he was not rather one of those who
preach but do not practise.
The Saint replied: ‘‘My dear brother, I am
but a weak man and beset by infirmities. At the
same time, miserable though I feel myself to be,
God teaches me what I ought to do. I cannot tell
you what I should actually do, because though the
spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. At the same
time we know, that while without grace we can
do nothing, with its aid we can do everything; a
reed in the hand of grace becomes a mighty staff
that cannot be broken. If we are told to be willing
to give our life itself in defence of our faith, how
much more does it behove us to endure some small
affront for the maintenance of charity! Moreover,
were I to be such a recreant to the grace of God as
not to bear an insult of this kind patiently, let me
remind you that the same Gospel which reproves
those who preach but do not practise, warns us
against following the example of such teachers,
though it bids us do what they tell us to do.”
“ Yet,” resumed the other, ‘‘ our Saviour never
presented the other cheek to the servant of the
High Priest who struck Him; on the contrary He
resented the act.’’
“ What!” cried the holy Bishop, ‘‘ you place
202 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
our Lord on a level with those who preach but do
not practise! That is blasphemy! As for us, we
entertain more reverent feelings towards that
Model of all perfection. It is not for us to
comment on the actions of Him who, as we firmly
believe, could not act otherwise than most perfectly.
Neither is it for us to dare to say: ‘ Why hast Thou
done thus?’ Yet we may well remember His
zeal for the salvation of that impious man’s soul,
and the remonstrances which He deigned to use
in order to bring him to repentance. Nay, did He
not offer not only His cheek to the smiter, but His
whole sacred Body to the cruel scourging which
covered Him with wounds from Head to Foot? ”
BLESSED FRANCIS’ FAVOURITE BEATITUDE.
He was once asked which, in his opinion, was
the most perfect of the eight Beatitudes. It was
thought that he would answer: ‘‘ The second,
Blessed are the meek,” but it was not so; he
gave the preference to the eighth: Blessed are they
that suffer for justice’ sake. He explained his
preference by saying that ‘‘the life of those who
are persecuted for justice’ sake is hidden in God with
Jesus Christ, and becomes conformable to His
image; for was not He persecuted all through His
earthly life for justice’ sake, although He fulfilled it
in all its perfection? Such persons are, as it were,
shrouded by the veil which hides the countenance of
God. They appear sinful, but they are just; dead,
but they live; fools, but they are wise; in a word,
though despised in the sight of men, they are
dear to God with whom they live for ever.
Should God have given me one particle of justice,
Ms Gravity and Affability 203
enabling me thereby to do some little good, it would
be my wish that in the Day of Judgment, when
all secrets are revealed, God alone should know my
righteousness, and that my sinful actions should
be proclaimed to all creatures.”’
His GRAVITY AND AFFABILITY.
Grace produced in him that wonderful and per-
fectly harmonious blending of gravity and
affability, which was perhaps his most distinguish-
ing characteristic. There was in his whole
demeanour and in the very expression of his face
a lofty and dignified beauty which inspired rever-
ence and even a sort of fear—that is, such fear
as engenders respect and makes any undue
familiarity impossible. Yet, at the same time he
displayed such sweetness and gentleness as to en-
courage all who approached him. Noone, however
conscious of his own want of attractiveness, feared
a repulse from the holy Bishop, and all, feeling
sure of a welcome, were only eager to please and
satisfy him.
For my own part I must confess that when I
succeeded in doing anything which he was able to
praise, and which consequently gave him pleasure,
I was so happy and elated that I felt as if I were
raised to the seventh heaven! Indeed, had he not
taught me to refer everything to God, many of my
actions would, I fear, have stopped half-way
thither. People of high standing in society, accus-
tomed even to come into close contact with royalty
itself, have assured me that, in the presence of our
Saint, they felt a subtle influence guarding, re-
straining, elevating them as no other companion-
ship, however noble and distinguished, could ever
204 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
do. It was as though in him they saw some reflec-
tion of the all-penetrating intelligence of God
Himself, lighting up the inmost recesses of their
heart, and laying bare its mysteries.
Yet his affability was no less marvellous, making
itself felt the instant you came in contact with him.
It was not like a quality or grace acquired; it was
not in any way apart from his own personality, it
was as if he were affability personified. Hence
that power of winning over others, of making him-
self all things to all men, of gaining the support of
so many in his plans and schemes, all of which
had but one aim and object, namely, the increase
of the glory of God and the promotion of the
salvation of souls.
How BLESSED FRANCIS DEALT WITH A CRIMINAL
WHO DESPAIRED OF SALVATION.
He was once asked to visit in prison a poor
criminal already condemned to death, but who
could not be induced to make his confession. The
unhappy man had committed crimes so terrible
that he despaired of the forgiveness even of God,
and having often during his lifetime met death face
to face in battle and in duels, he appeared to be
quite ready again to meet it boldly; nay, so
hardened was he by the devil that he even spoke
calmly of hell, as of the abode destined for him
for eternity.
Our Blessed Father finding him in this frame of
mind, and altogether cold, hard, and reckless, pro-
claiming himself the prey of Satan and a victim
prepared for hell, thus addressed him: ‘* My
brother, would you not rather be the prey of God
How Blessed Francis, ce. 205
and a victim of the Cross of Jesus Christ?”
‘“ What,” cried the criminal, ‘‘ do you think that
God would have anything to do with a victim as
repulsive as Iam? ”’
“Oh, God!” was the silent prayer of Blessed
Francis, ‘‘ remember Thine ancient mercies and the
promise which Thou hast made never to quench
utterly the smoking flax nor wholly to break the
bruised reed. Thou who willest not the death of
the sinner, but rather that he should be converted
and live, make happy the last moments of this
poor soul.”
Then he spoke aloud replying to the despairing
words of the poor wretch, for, horrifying though
they were, they had proved to the skilled work-
man that there was something left to work upon,
that faith in God was not vet wholly dead in that
pocr heart. ‘‘ At any rate, would you not rather
abandon yourself to God than to the evil one?”
‘“ Most assuredly,’’ replied the criminal, ‘‘ but it
isa likely thing indeed that God would have any-
thing to do with a man like me!” ‘It was for
men like you,” returned the Bishop, ‘‘ that the
Eternal Father sent His Son into the world, nay
for worse than you, even for Judas and for the mis-
creants who crucified Him. Jesus Christ came to
save not the just, but sinners.”
“But,” cried the other, ‘‘can you assure
me that it would not be presumption on my
part to have recourse to His mercy?” ‘‘ It would
be great presumption,” replied our Saint, “‘ to think
that His mercy was not infinite, far above all sins
not only possible but conceivable, and that His
redemption was not so plentiful, but that it could
206 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
make grace superabound where sin had poured
forth a flood of evils. On the contrary, His mercy,
which is over all His works, and which always over-
rides His justice, becomes so much the greater the
greater the mountain of our sins.
Upon that very mountain he sets up the throne
of His mercy.’ With words such as these, kind-
ling, or rather re-animating the spark of faith not
yet wholly dead in the soul of the wretched man,
he relighted the flame of hope, which up to that
moment was quite extinguished, and little by little
softened and tamed the man’s natural temper,
rendered savage by despair. He led him on at
last to resignation, and persuaded him to cast him-
self into the arms of God for death and for life;
to deal with him according to His own good
pleasure, for his whole future in this world, or in
the next.
“But He will damn me,” said the man, ‘‘ for
He is just.” ‘*‘ No, He will pardon you,” replied
Blessed Francis, “‘if you cry to Him for mercy,
for He is merciful and has promised forgiveness
to whoever implores it of Him with a humble and
contrite heart.” ‘‘ Well,” replied the criminal,
‘let Him damn me if he pleases—I am His, He
can do with me what the potter does with his
clay.” ‘‘Nay,’’ replied the holy Bishop, “‘ say
rather with David, I am Thine, O Lord, save
me.” Not to make the story too long, I may tell
you that the holy Bishop brought this man to
confession, repentance, and contrition, and that he
died with great constancy, sincerely acknowledging
his sins and abandoning himself entirely to the
most holy will of God. The last words which our
39
Upon Mortification 207
Blessed Father made him utter were these: “O
Jesus, I give myself up to Thee—I abandon mysel}!
wholly to Thee.”
Upon MORTIFICATION.
It is far better to mortify the body through the
spirit than the spirit through the body. To deaden
and beat down the body instead of trying to reduce
the swelling of an inflated spirit is like pulling
back a horse by its tail. It is behaving like
Balaam, who beat the ass which carried him,
instead of taking heed to the peril which threatened
him and which the poor beast was miraculously
warning him to avoid.
One of the three first Postulants who entered the
Convent of the Visitation, established by me at
Belley, left it before taking the novices’ habit
being unable to understand how Religious could
be holy in an Order in which she saw so few
austerities practised. She has since then, however,
been disabused of her error, and has repented of it.
At that time she was under the guidance of those
who considered that holiness consisted in morti-
fications in respect of food and clothing: as if the
stings of the flesh cease to be felt when you no
longer eat of it, and as if you could not be tem-
perate over partridges and gluttonous over cab-
bages.
Our Blessed Father, writing to a novice in one
of his convents who was perplexed on this sub-
ject, says: ‘‘ The devil does not trouble himself
much about us if, while macerating our bodies,
we are at the same time doing our own will, for he
does not fear austerity but obedience.
208 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
What greater austerity can there be than to keep
our will in subjection and in continual obedience.
Reassure yourself then, O lover of voluntary
penance, if, indeed, the works of self-love deserve
to be called penances! When you took the habit
after many prayers and much consideration, it was
thought good that you should enter the school of
obedience and renunciation of your own will rather
than remain the sport of your own judgment and
of yourself. —
Do not then let yourself be shaken, but remain
where our Lord has placed you. It is true that
there you suffer great mortifications of heart, see-
ing yourself so imperfect and so deserving of
reproof and correction, but is not this the very
thing you ought to seek, mortification of heart and
a continual sense of your own misery? Yet, you
say, you cannot do such penance as you would.
My dear daughter, tell me what better penance can
be given to an erring heart than to bear a continual
cross and to be always renouncing self-love? ”
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
Blessed Francis was no great friend of unusual
mortifications, and did not wish them to be prac-
tised except in the pressing necessity of violent
temptations.
In such cases it was his desire that those so
the body, so also by these caustic remedies holiness
is often preserved in the soul. |
assailed should try to repel force by force, employ-
ing that holy violence which takes heaven by storm,
for, as by cutting and burning health is restored to
Upon the same subject 209
He used to say that to those who made all kinds
of exterior austerities their custom, the custom in
time becomes a second nature ;! that those who had
hardened their skin no longer felt any incon-
venience from cold, from hard couches, or coarse
garments, and that when the flame of concupis-
cence kindled this dry wood they possessed no
remedy which they could apply to extinguish the
fire.
They are like the pagan king, who had so
accustomed himself to feed upon poison that when
he wished to end his miseries with his life by taking
it, he was obliged to live on against his will, and
to serve as a sport to his enemies.
The devil cares very little about our body being
laid low so long as he can hold on to us by the vices
of the soul; and so cunning is he that often out of
bodily mortifications, he extracts matter for vanity.
Our holy Bishop wrote as follows to a person
who regretted that her health prevented her from
continuing her accustomed austerities :
“ Since you do not find yourself any longer able
to practise corporal mortifications and the severities
of penance, and since it is not at all expedient
that you should think of doing so, on which point
we are perfectly agreed, keep your heart calm and
recollected in the presence of its Saviour; and as
far as possible do what you may have to do solely
to please God, and suffer whatever you may have
to suffer according to His disposal of events in this
life with the same intention. Thus God will possess
1Note.—It is not to be inferred that Saint Francis coun-
tenanced self-indulgence. He only wished to remove the
idea common in his day, that devotion must be accompanied
by austerity.—[ Ed. ]
O
210 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
you wholly and will graciously allow you to possess
Him one day eternally.”
With regard to the various kinds of mortifica-
tion, that which is inward and hidden is far more
excellent than that which is exterior, the former
not being compatible, as is the latter, with
hypocrisy, vanity, or indiscretion.
Again, those mortifications which come upon us
from without, either directly from God or through
men by His permission, are always superior to
those which depend upon our own choice and which
are the offspring of our will.
Many, however, find here a stumbling block,
being very eager to embrace mortifications sug-
gested by their own inclinations, which, after all,
however apparently severe, are really easy because
they are what nature itself wants.
On the other hand, mortifications which come
to them from without and through others, however
light they may be, they find insupportable. For
example, a person will eagerly make use of dis-
ciplines, hair-shirts, and fasting, and yet will be
so tender of his reputation that if once in a way
laughed at or spoken against, he will become
almost beside himself, robbed of his rest and even
sometimes of his reason; and will perhaps in the
end be driven to the most deplorable extremities.
Another will throw himself with ardour into the
practice of prayer, penance, silence, and such like
devotions, but will break out into a fury of im-
patience and complain indignantly and unre-
strainedly at the loss of a law-suit, or at the slightest
damage done to his property.
Another will give alms liberally and make
Upon the same subject 211
magnificent foundations for the relief of the poor
and sick, but will groan and tremble with fear when
himself threatened with infirmity or sickness, how-
ever slightly ; and upon experiencing the least pos-
sible bodily pain, will give vent to interminable
lamentations.
In proportion as people are more or less attached
to honours, gain, or mere pleasures, they bear with
less or more patience the hindrances to them; nor
do the majority of men seriously consider that it is
the hand of God which gives and which takes away,
which kills and which makes alive, which exalts
and which casts down, as it pleases Him.
In order to heal this spiritual malady in a certain
person our Blessed Father wrote to her: ‘“‘ Often
and with all your heart kiss the crosses which God
has laid upon your shoulders. Do not consider
whether they are of precious and sweet-scented
wood or not. And, indeed, they are more truly
crosses when they are of coarse, common, ill-smell-
ing wood. It is strange, but one particular chant
keeps ever coming back to my mind, and it is the
only one I know. It is the canticle of the divine
Lamb; sad, indeed, but at the same time harmoni-
ous and beautiful—Father, not my will, but Thine
be done.’’*
Upon FASTING.!
One day when we were talking about that holy
liberty of spirit of which he thought so highly, as
being one of the great aids to charity, Blessed
Francis told me the following anecdote, which is a
*Luke xxii. 42.
1The Saint is here speaking of fasts of devotion, not of
those of obligation.—[Ed. ]
212 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
most practical illustration of his feelings on the
subject.
He had been visited by a Prelate, whom, with his
accustomed hospitality and kindness, he pressed to
remain with him for several days. When Friday
evening came, our Blessed Father went to the Pre-
late’s room inviting him to come to supper, which
was quite ready.
‘“ Supper !” cried his guest. ‘‘ This is not a day
for supper! Surely, the least one can do is to fast
once a week!’’ Our holy Bishop at once left him
to do as he pleased, desiring the servants to take his
collation to his room, while he himself joined the
chaplains of the Prelate and his own household at
the supper table.
The chaplains told him that this Prelate was so
exact and punctilious in discharging all his religious
exercises, of prayer, fasting, and such like, that he
never abated one of them, whatever company he
might have. Not that he refused to sit down to table
with his visitors on fast days, but that he ate
nothing but what was permitted by the rule he had
imposed on himself. Our Blessed Father, after
telling me this, went on to say that condescension
was the daughter of charity, just as fasting is the
sister of obedience; and that where obedience did
not impose the sacrifice, he would have no difficulty
in preferring condescension and hospitality to fast-
ing. The lives of the Saints furnish frequent
examples of this. Above all, Scripture assures us,
that by hospitality some have merited to receive
Angels; from which declaration St. Paul takes occa-
sion to exhort the faithful not to forget liberality and
hospitality, as sacrifices well pleasing to God.*
*Heb xiii. 2, 16.
Upon Fasting 213
‘* Remember,” he said, ‘“‘ that we must not be so
deeply attached to our religious exercises, however
pious, as not to be ready sometimes to give them up.
For, if we cling to them too tightly, under the pre-
text of fidelity and steadfastness, a subtle self-love
will glide in among them, making us forget the end
in the means, and then, instead of pressing on, nor
resting till we rest in God Himself, we shall stop
short at the means which lead to Him.
As regards the occurrence of which I have been
telling you, one Friday’s fast, thus interrupted,
would have concealed many others; and to conceal
such virtues is no less a virtue than those which are
so concealed. God is a hidden God, who loves to
be served, prayed to, and adored in secret, as the
Gospel testifies.* You know what happened to
that unthinking king of Israel, who, for having dis-
played his treasures to the ambassadors of a bar-
barian prince, was deprived of them all, when that
same heathen king descended upon him with a
powerful army.
The practice of the virtue of condescension or
affability may often with profit be substituted for
fasting. I except, however, the case of a vow, for
in that we must be faithful even to death, and care
nothing about what men may say, provided that
God is served. They that please men have been
confounded, because God hath despised them.’’+
He asked me one day if it was easy for me to fast.
I answered that it was perfectly easy, as it was a rare
thing for me to sit down to table with any appetite.
“ Then,” he rejoined, ‘‘ do not fast at all.” On my
expressing great astonishment at these words, and
¥Matt. vi. 6. +Psalm lii. 6.
214 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
venturing to remind our Blessed Father that it was
a mortification, strongly recommended to us by God
Himself.
“ Yes,” he replied, ‘‘ but for those who have
better appetites than you have. Do some other good
work, and keep your body in subjection by some
other mode of discipline.” He went on, however,
to say that fasting was, indeed, the greatest of all
corporal austerities, since it puts the axe to the root
of the tree. The others only touch the bark lightly;
they only scrape or prune it. Whereas when the
body waxes fat it often kicks, and from this sort of
fatness sin is likely to proceed.
Those who are naturally sober, temperate, and
self-restrained have a great advantage over others
in the matter of study and spiritual things. They
are like horses that have been well broken in, horses
which have a strong bridle, holding them in to their
duty.”
He was no friend to immoderate fasting, and
never encouraged it in his penitents, as we see in
his ‘‘ Introduction to a Devout Life,” where he gives
this reason against the practice: ‘‘ When the body
is over-fed, the mind cannot support its weight; but
when the body is weak and wasted, it cannot support
the mind.’’ He liked the one and the other to be
dealt with in a well-balanced manner, and said that
God wished to be served with a reasonable
service; adding that it was always easy to bring
down and reduce the bodily forces, but that it was
not so easy a matter to build them up again when
thus brought low. It is easy to wound, but not to
heal. The mind should treat the body as its child,
correcting without crushing it; only when it revolts
Doubts Solved, £c. Paid
must it be treated as a rebellious subject, according
to the words of the Apostle: I chastise my body and
bring it into subjection.”
DOUBTS SOLVED AS TO SOLDIERS FASTING.
I was so young when called to the episcopate that
I lived in a state of continual mistrust and uncer-
tainty; doubtful about this, scrupulous about that;
ignorance being the grandmother of scruples, as
servile fear is their mother.
At the time of which I am going to speak, the
residences of our Blessed Father and myself were
only eight leagues apart, and in all my perplexities
and difficulties I had recourse to his judgment and
counsel. I kept a little foot-boy in my service,
almost entirely employed in running to and fro
between Belley and Annecy, carrying my letters to
him and bringing back his replies. These replies
were to me absolute decrees; nay, I should rather
say oracles, so manifestly did God speak by the
mouth and pen of that holy man.
On one occasion it happened that the captains of
some troops—then stationed in garrison on the bor-
ders of Savoy and France, on account of a misunder-
standing which had arisen between the two coun-
tries—came to me at the beginning of Lent to ask
permission for their men to eat eggs and cheese dur-
ing that season. This was a permission which I
had never given except to the weak and sickly. I
learned from the men themselves that they were
exceedingly robust and hearty, and only weak and
reduced as regarded théir purses, their pay being
so small that it barely supplied them with food.
™ (or. ik. 27.
216 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Nevertheless, I did not consider this poor pay a
sufficient reason for granting a dispensation, espe-
cially in a district where Lent is so strictly kept that
the peasants are scandalized when told that on cer-
tain days they may eat butter.
In my difficulty I despatched a letter at once to
our Blessed Father, whose reply was full of sweet-
ness and kindness. He said that he honoured the
faith and piety of the good centurions, who had pre-
sented this request, which, indeed, deserved to be
granted, seeing that it edified, not the Synagogue,
but the Church. He added that I ought not only to
grant it, but to extend it, and instead of eggs, to
permit them to eat oxen, and instead of cheese, the
cows of whose milk it is made.
“ Truly,” he went on to say, ‘‘ you are a wise
person to consult me as to what soldiers shall eat
in Lent, as if the laws of war and necessity did not
over-ride all others without exception! Is it nota
great thing that these good men submit themselves
to the Church, and so defer to her as to ask her
permission and blessing? God grant that they may
do nothing worse than eat eggs, cheese, or beef; if
they were guilty of nothing more heinous than that,
there would not be so many complaints against
them.”
THE GOLDEN MEAN IN DISPENSATIONS.
9
“It is quite frue,” said our Blessed Father, on
one occasion, ‘‘that there are certain matters in
which we are meant to use our own judgment, and
in which, if we judge ourselves, we shall not be
chastised by God. But there are others in which,
with the eye of our soul, that is, with our judgment,
The golden mean in dispensations 217
it is as with the eye of the body, which sees all
things excepting itself. We need a mirror. Now,
this mirror, as regards interior things, is the person
to whom we manifest our conscience, and who is its
judge in the place of God.”
He went on to say that in the matter of granting
dispensations to his flock, he had told a certain Pre-
late, who had consulted him on the subject, that
the best rule to give to others, or to take for one-
self in such questions, is to love one’s neighbour
as oneself, and oneself as others, in God and for
God. ‘‘If,’’ he continued, addressing the Prelate,
“you now take more trouble about granting these
necessary dispensations to others than in getting
them for yourself, the time will come when you will
be generous, easy, and indulgent towards others,
and severe and rigorous towards yourself. Per-
haps you imagine that this second line of conduct
is better than the other. It is not, and you will
find the repose and peace of your soul only in the
golden mean, which is the one wholesome atmos-
phere for the nourishing of virtue.”
UPON THE WORDS, ‘‘ EAT OF ANYTHING THAT IS
SET BEFORE YOU.”
Our Blessed Father held in great esteem the
Gospel maxim, Eat such things as are set before
you.* He deemed it a much higher and stronger
degree of mortification to accommodate the tastes
and appetite to any food, whether pleasant or other-
wise, which may be offered, than always to choose
the most inferior and coarsest kinds. For it not
seldom happens that the greatest delicacies—or
“uc. xo 8.
218 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
those at least which are esteemed to be such by
epicures—are not to our taste, and therefore to par-
take of them without showing the least sign of dis-
like is by no means so small a matter as may be
thought. It incommodes no one but the person
who so mortifies himself, and it is a little act of self-
restraint so secret, so securely hidden from others,
that the rest of the company imagine something
quite different from the real truth.
He also considered that it was a species of in-
civility when seated at a meal to ask for some dish
which was at the other end of the table, instead of
taking what was close at hand. He said that such
practices were evidence of a mind too keen about
viands, sauces, and condiments; too much absorbed
in mere eating and drinking. If, he added, this
careful picking out of dishes is not done from
greediness or gluttony, but from a desire to choose
the worst food, it smacks of affectation, which is
as inseparable from ostentation as smoke from fire.
The conduct of people who do this is not unlike that
of guests who take the lowest seats at the table, in
order that they may, with the greater éclat, be sum-
moned to the higher places. The following inci-
dent will show his own indifference. One day
poached eggs were served to him, and when he had
eaten them, he continued to dip his bread in the
water in which they had been cooked, apparently
without noticing what he was doing. The guests
were all smiling. Upon discovering the cause of
their amusement, he told them it was too bad of them
to undeceive him, as he was taking the sauce with
much relish, verifying the proverb that ‘‘ Hunger
is the best sauce ” !
Upon the state of Perfection 219
UPON THE STATE OF PERFECTION.
The degree of perfection to which our Blessed
Father brought his Religious he makes manifest to
us in one of his letters.
“Do you know,” he says, ‘‘ what the cloister is?
It is the school of exact correction, in which each in-
dividual soul must learn the lesson of allowing itself
to be so disciplined, planed, and polished that at
length, being quite smooth and even, it may be fit
to be joined, united, and absolutely assimilated with
the Will of God.
To wish to be corrected is an evident sign of per-
fection, for the principal point of humility is realiz-
ing our need of it.
A convent is a hospital for the spiritually sick.
The sick wish to be cured, and, therefore, they
willingly submit to be lanced, probed, cut, caute-
rized, and subjected to any and every pain and dis-
comfort which medicine or surgery may suggest.
In the early days of the Church, religious were
called by a name which signifies healers. Oh! my
daughter, be truly your own healer, and pay no
heed to what self-love may whisper to the contrary.
Say to yourself, since I do not wish to die spiri-
tually, I will be healed, and in order to be
healed I will submit to treatment and correction, and
I will entreat the doctors to spare me nothing which
may be required to effect my cüre.”
MARKS OF PROGRESS IN PERFECTION.
Our Blessed Father, who did not like people to be
too introspective and self-tormenting, said that they
220 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
should, however, walk as it is written of the Macca-
bees, Cauie et ordinate ;* that is, with circumspec-
tion and order, or, to use’ a common expression,
“bridle in hand.” And one of the best proofs of
our advancement in virtue is, he said, a love of cor-
rection and reproof; for it is a sign of a good diges-
tion easily to assimilate tough and coarse food. In
the same way it is a mark of spiritual health and
inward vigour to be able to say with the Psalmist,
The just man shall correct me in mercy and shall
reprove me.t
It is a great proof of our hating vice, and of the
faults which we commit, proceeding rather from
inadvertence and frailty, than from malice and
deliberate intention, that we welcome the warnings
which make us think on our ways, and turn back
our feet (that is to say, our affections) into the
testimonies of God, by which is meant the divine
law.
An old philosopher said that to want to get well
is part of the sick man’s cure. The desire to keep
well is a sign of health. He who loves correction
necessarily desires the virtue contrary to the fault
for which he is reproved, and therefore profits by
the warnings given him to escape the vice from
which his fault proceeded.
A sick person who is really anxious to recover
his health takes without hesitation the remedies
prescribed by the physician, however sharp, bitter,
and painful they may be. He who aims at perfec-
tion, which is the full health, and true holiness of
the soul, finds nothing difficult that helps him to
arrive at that end. Justice and judgment, that is
*1 Mach. vi. 4. ¢Psalm cxl. 5.
Upon the Perfection, £e, 221
to say correction, establish in him the seat of per-
fect wisdom. In a word, better are the wounds of
a friend (like those of a surgeon who probes only
to heal) than the deceitful kisses of a flatterer, an
enemy.*
UPON THE PERFECTION AIMED AT IN RELIGIOUS
HousEs.
Our Blessed Father was speaking to me one
day on the subject of exterior perfection, and on
the discontent expressed by certain Religions, who,
in their particular order, had not found the strict-
ness and severity of rule they desired. He said:
“ These good people seem to me to be knocking
their heads against a stone wall. Christian perfec-
tion does not consist in eating fish, wearing serge,
sleeping on straw, stripping oneself of one’s
possessions, keeping strict vigils, and such like
austerities. For, were this so, pagans would be the
more perfect than christians, since many of them
voluntarily sleep on the bare ground, do not eat a
morsel of meat throughout the whole year, are
ragged, naked, shivering, living for the most part
only on bread and water, and on that bread of
suffering, too, which is far harder and heavier than
the blackest of crusts. If perfection consisted in
exterior observances such as these, they would have
to go back in perfection were they to enter even
the most strictly reformed of our Religious Houses,
for in none is a life led nearly so austere as theirs,
The question then is in what does the essential
perfection of a christian life consist? It must
surely in the first place include the assiduous prac-
*Prov. xxvii. 6.
222 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
tice of charity, for exterior mortifications without
charity are of no account. St. Paul, we know,
reckons martyrdom itself as nothing, unless
quickened by charity.
I do not exactly know what standard of perfec-
tion they who insist so much upon exterior morti-
fication wish to set up.
Surely the greater or lesser degree of charity is
the true measure of sanctity and the measure also
of the excellence of religious rule. Now, in what
rule is charity, the queen of the virtues, more re-
commended that in that of St. Augustine? which
seems to be nothing but one long discourse on
charity.
However, it is not a question of comparing one
rule with another, it is rather of noticing which
rule is as a matter of fact best observed. For even
had other rules, in regard to the exterior perfect-
ness of the life they prescribe, every advantage over
that of St. Augustine, who does not know that it is
safer to enter a community in which a rule of less
excellence is exactly observed, rather than another
where a higher kind of rule is preached but not
kept? Of what use are laws if they are not ob-
served ?
The consequence, in my opinion, of the mistake
made by those who put over-much stress on esteem
of mortification, is, that even Religious get accus-
tomed to make use in their judgments of those
lying balances of which the Psalmist speaks,* and
that the simple-minded are forced to trust to the
guidance of blind leaders. Hence it has come to
pass that true and essential perfection is not what
*Psalm lxi. Io.
Upon Frugality 223
the majority of people think it to be, nor is it
reached by the road along which the many travel.
May God have pity on us, and bless us with the
light of His countenance, so that we may know His
way upon the earth, and may declare His salvation
to all nations, and may He turn aside from us in
this our day, that which He once threatened to
those who thought themselves wise: Let them
alone, they are blind leaders of the blind.’’*
Upon FRUGALITY.
The following notable example of frugality and
economy was related to me by our Blessed Father
himself,
Monseigneur Vespasian Grimaldi, who was
Piedmontese by birth, made a tolerably large
fortune in France as an ecclesiastic, during the
regency of Catherine de Medicis. He was raised
to the dignity of Archbishop of Vienne in
Dauphiné, and held several other benefices which
brought him in a large revenue. Having amassed
all these riches at court, his desire was to live there
in great pomp and splendour, but whether it was
that God did not bless his designs, or that he was
too much addicted to extravagance and display,
certain it is that he was always in difficulties, not
only about money, but even about his health.
Weary at last of dragging on a life so troubled
and so wretched, he resolved to quit the court, and
to retire into a peaceful solitude. He had often in
past days remarked the extraordinary beauty of the
banks of Lake Leman, where nature seems to
scatter her richest gifts with lavish hand, and there
*Matt. xv. 14.
224 The Spirit of St Francis De Sales
he resolved to fix his abode in a district subject to
his own sovereign, the Duke of Savoy, and settling
down in that quiet spot to spend the remainder of
his days in peace. He selected for this purpose
the little village and market town of Evian, so
called because of the abundance and clearness of
its lovely streams and fountains. The little town
is situated on the very margin of the lake, and
backed by an outlying stretch of country is as
charming to the eye as it is rich and fertile.
There, having given up his archbishopric and
all his benefices, reserving only to himself a pen-
sion of two thousand crowns, he established a
retreat into which he was accompanied by only
three or four servants.
He was at this time sixty-five years old, but
weighed down by physical infirmities much more
than by the burden of his years. He had chosen
this particular spot purposely because there was no
approach to it from the high road, and there was
little fear of visits from that great world of which
he was now so weary, in the crush and tumult of
which he had spent so large a portion of his life in
consequence of his position at court.
Another reason for his choosing Evian was that
the little township being in the diocese of Geneva,
which is included in the province of Vienne in
Dauphiné, in settling there he was not leaving his
own province.
Living then in this calm retreat, free from all
bustle and all burdens of office, with no show and
state to keep up, having nothing to attend to but
the sanctification of his soul and the restoration of
his bodily health, a marvellous change was soon
Upon Frugality 225
observed in him. Inward peace gave back to him
health so vigorous and settled that those who had
known him in the days of his infirmity declared
him to be absolutely rejuvenated, and truly he did
feel in his soul a renewal of strength like that of
the eagle. This he attributed to exercises of the
contemplative life.to which he now devoted himself
with fervour.
We see thus how true is the divine oracle which
tells us that to those who seek first the Kingdom of
God and His justice all temporal things necessary
shall be given,* for God prospered this good Pre-
late in even his worldly affairs.
The small sum of money which he had reserved
for himself, and which he spent in the most frugal
and judicious manner possible, so increased that
when he died at the age of a hundred and two ora
hundred and three years, he left behind him more
than 6,000 crowns.
By his will he ordered the whole to be distributed
in benefactions and alms throughout the neigh-
bourhood, and in fact it relieved every necessitous
person to be found round about.
it was this very Mgr. Vespasian Grimaldi who,
assisted by the Bishops of Saint-Paul-Trois-
Chateaux, and of Damascus, conferred episcopal
consecration upon Blessed Francis in the Church
of Thorens, in the diocese of Geneva, on the feast
of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady,
December 8th, 1602.
From this notable example we may easily gather.
1. That for Prelates the atmosphere of Courts
is not to be recommended.
*Matt. vi. 33.
226 The Spirito St. Francis De Sales
2. That it is favourable neither to the growth
of holiness nor the maintenance of physical health.
3. That great fortunes entail great slavery and
great anxieties.
4. A peaceful, tranquil, and hidden life, even
from the point of view of common sense and of the
dictates of nature, is the happiest.
5. That much more is this so when looked at in
the light of grace and of the soul’s welfare.
6. That the old saying is quite true that there is
no surer way to increase one’s income than that of
frugality and judicious economy.
7. That one never has money enough to meet all
the claims of worldly show and vain ostentation.
8. That he who lives in the style the world ex-
pects of him is never rich, while he who regulates
his expenditure simply by his natural needs is never
poor.
g. That almsdeeds is an investment which multi-
plies itself a hundredfold even in this present life
and ensures the fruit of a blessed eternity in the
next, provided only they have been given in the
love, and for the love of God.
BLESSED FRANCIS’ ESTEEM OF THE VIRTUE OF
SIMPLICITY.
Our Blessed Father had the highest possible
esteem for the virtue of simplicity. Indeed, my
sisters, you know what a prominent place he gives
to it in his letters, his Spiritual Conferences, and
elsewhere. Whenever he met with an example of
it he rejoiced and openly expressed his delight. I
will here give you one instance which he told me,
as it were exulting over it.
Blessed Francis’ esteem of the virtue, £c. 227
After having preached the Advent and Lent at
Grenoble, he paid a visit to La Grande Chartreuse,
that centre of wonderful devotion and austerity, the
surroundings of which are so wild, solitary, and
almost terrible in their ruggedness, that St. Ber-
nard called it locus horroris et vaste solitudinis.
At the time of his visit, the Prior General of the
whole Order was Dom Bruno d’Affringues, a
native of St. Omer, a man of profound learning
and of still more profound humility and simplicity.
I knew him well, and can bear witness to the
beauty of his character, which in its extreme
sweetness and simplicity had something in it not
of this earth.
He received Blessed Francis on his arrival with
his usual delightful courtesy and sincerity. After
having conducted him to a guest chamber suited to
his rank, and having talked with him on many
lofty and sublime subjects, he suddenly remem-
bered that it was some feast day of the Order. He
therefore took leave of the Bishop, saying that he
would gladly have stayed with him much longer,
but that he knew his honoured guest would prefer
obedience to everything else, and that he must re-
tire to his cell to prepare for Matins, it being the
feast of one of their great Saints.
Our Saint approved highly of this exact obser-
vance of rule, and they separated with mutual
expressions of respect and regard.
On his way to his cell, however, the Prior was
met by the Procurator of the Monastery, who
asked him where he was going and where he had
left his Lordship, the Bishop of Geneva. ‘‘I have
left him,” the Prior answered, ‘‘in his own cham-
228 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
ber, and I took leave of him that I might go to our
cell and be ready to say Matins to-night in choir
because of to-morrow s feast.” ‘‘ Truly, Reverend
Father,” said the Procurator, ‘‘ you are well up in
the ceremonies of the world indeed! Why, it is
only a feast of our own Order! Do we, out in this
desert, have every day for our guests Prelates of
such distinction? Do you not know that God takes
pleasure when for a sacrifice to Him we offer hos-
pitality and kindliness? You will always have
leisure to sing the praises of God; you will have
plenty of other opportunities for saying Matins;
but who can entertain such a Prelate better than
you? What a disgrace to the house that you
should leave him thus alone!” ‘‘ My son,” re-
plied the Reverend Father, ‘‘I see that you are
quite right and that I have certainly done wrong.”’
So saying he at once retraced his steps to the Bishop
of Geneva’s apartment, and finding him there said
humbly: *‘ My Lord, on leaving you I met one of
our brethren who told me that I had been guilty
of discourtesy in leaving you thus all alone; that
I should have an opportunity at another time of
making up for my absence from Matins, but that
we do not every day have a Bishop of Geneva
under our roof. I see that he is in the right
and I have come back at once to ask your
pardon, and to beg you to excuse my apparent
rudeness, for I assure you truthfully that it was
done in ignorance.”
Blessed Francis was enraptured with this
straightforwardness, candour, and simplicity, and
told me that he was more delighted with it than
if he had seen the good Prior work a miracle.
Blessed Francis’ love of exactitude 229
BLESSED FRANCIS’ LOVE OF EXACTITUDE.
This same Dom Bruno was remarkable for his
exactitude and punctuality, virtues which our
Blessed Father always both admired and praised.
He was so exact in the observance of the smallest
monastic detail that no novice could have surpassed
him in carefulness. At the same time he never
allowed himself to be carried away by indiscreet
fervour, beyond the line laid down in his rule,
knowing how much harm would be done to his in-
feriors by his not preserving a calm and even tenor
of life, making himself all things to men, that he
might win them and keep them for Jesus Christ.
He would never allow the smallest austerities to
be practised beyond those prescribed by the Con-
Stitutions of the Order. Though rigorous towards
himself he was marvellously indulgent towards
those whom he governed in the monastery. For
himself he had the heart of a judge, for them that
of a mother.
Our holy Bishop, drawing a comparison between
him and his predecessor, who was addicted to such
excessive austerities that it seemed as if he had
either no body at all, or one of iron, said: ‘' The
late Prior was like those unskilful physicians who
by their treatment fill up our cemeteries:
for many who desired to imitate his mortified life,
and through a zeal without knowledge, tried to do
what was beyond their strength, ended by falling
into the pit. On the other hand, the actual Prior
of the Grand Chartreuse, by his gentleness and
moderation, maintains among his monks, peace
and humility of soul, together with health of body,
230 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
making them preserve their strength for God, that
is to say, so as to serve Him longer and with
greater earnestness in those exercises which tend to
His glory. In doing this he follows the example
of the Patriarch Jacob, who, on his return from
Mesopotamia, could have reached his father’s
house much sooner had he accepted the offer of
camels made by his brother Esau, when he came to
meet him. But Jacob preferred to accommodate
his pace to that of his little ones, of his children,
and even of the lambs of his flock, rather than to
press on at the risk of throwing his household and
followers into disorder. This example was a
favourite one with our Blessed Father, and I am
reminded of another of the same kind, which he
valued almost as much. ‘‘ Have you read,” he
once said to me, ‘‘ the life of Blessed Aloysius Gon-
zaga of the Society of Jesus? If you have, perhaps
you have remarked what it was that made that
young prince so quickly become holy, and almost
perfect. It was his extreme exactitude and punc-
tuality, and his faithful observance of the Constitu-
tions of his Order. This was such that he refused
to put one foot before the other, so to speak, or
draw back a single step in order to gratify himself.
This, not of course in regard to things commanded,
or forbidden, for the law of God leaves us in no
doubt about such, but in those indifferent matters
which, being neither commanded nor forbidden,
often make correct discernment difficult.”
There are some who imagine that this way of dis-
cerning the will of God is impracticable for persons
in the world, and that it is only out of the world,
as they call the cloistered life, that one can have
Blessed Francis love of exactitude 231
recourse to it. Now, although we do not deny
that in the well-regulated and holy life of a con-
vent by means of obedience, and through the
medium of superiors, the knowledge of God’s will
in things indifferent can be more perfectly ascer-
tained, and more readily acted upon, than in any
other state of life, still we venture to maintain that
even in the world it is easier to ascertain God’s will,
even in things indifferent, than might at first sight
appear.
It was one of Blessed Francis’ common maxims
that great fidelity towards God may be practised
even in the most indifferent actions, and he con-
sidered that to be a lower degree of fidelity which is
only available for great and striking occasions. He
who is careful with farthings, how much more so
will he be with crowns?
Not that he loved scrupulous minds, those,
namely, which are troubled and anxious about
every trifle. No, indeed, but he desired that God
should be loved by all with a vigilant and attentive
love, exact, punctual, and faithful in the smallest
matters, pictured to us by the rod the Prophet used
when watching the boiling caldron, to remove all
the scum as it rose to the surface.*
And you may be sure that what he taught by
word, he himself was the first to practise. He was
the most punctual man I ever knew, the most exact,
though without fussiness or worry. He was not
only most accurate in all details of the service of
the altar and of the choir, but, even when reciting
his office in private, he never failed to observe all
minutiz of ceremonial in every way, bowing his
myer. E Tr, 13.
232 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
head, genuflecting, etc., as if he were engaged in
a solemn public function. In his intercourse with
the world he was just as exact; he omitted no de-
tail required by courtesy, he spared no pains to
avoid giving inconvenience or annoyance to any-
one. People who were old fashioned in their punc-
tilious civilities, and tedious and lengthy in their
ceremonious discourse, he treated with the most
sweet and gracious forbearance, letting them say
all they had to say, before he replied, and then
answering as his duty and the laws of politeness
required.
All his actions were regular as clockwork, and
the holy presence of God was the loadstar of his
soul. One day I was complaining to him of the
too great deference which he paid me. ‘* And for
how much then do you,” he answered, ‘* account
Jesus Christ, whom I honour in your person?”
‘“ Oh!” I replied, “if you take that ground, you
ought to speak to me on your knees!”
Once two persons happened to be playing a
game of skill when Blessed Francis was in the
room. One was cheating the other. Our holy
Prelate, indignant at this, remonstrated at once.
‘*Oh,’’ was the careless reply, ‘“‘ we are only
playing for farthings.’ And ‘‘ supposing you
were playing for guineas,’’ returned Francis,
“how would it be then? He who despises small
faults will fall into great ones, but he who is faith-
ful and honest in small matters will also be honest
in great ones. He who fears to steal a pin will
certainly not take a guinea. In fine, he who is
faithful over a little shall be set over much.”
I should like while I am on this subject to add
A test of Religious Vocation 233
a short saying which was often on the lips of this
Blessed Father. ‘‘ Fidelity towards God consists in
abstaining from even the slighest faults, for great
ones are so repulsive in themselves that often
enough nature deters us from committing them.”
A TEST OF RELIGIOUS VOCATION.
Here I will relate a pleasant little incident which
befell Dom Bruno, of whom I have spoken above.
Our Blessed Father often quoted it as an example
for others.
The Germans, particularly those on the banks of
the Rhine, have a special devotion to St. Bruno,
who was a native of Cologne, in which city he is
highly honoured.
A young man, a native of the same place, had a
most ardent desire to enter the Carthusian Order,
but his parents, influential people of the city, pre-
vented his being received into the Chartreuse of
Cologne, or into any other Carthusian monastery
in the neighbourhood.
The youth, greatly distressed at this repulse,
left the city in haste, and took refuge among the
holy mountains where St. Bruno and his com-
panions made their first retreat. Presenting him-
self at the Grande Chartreuse he asked to see the
Rev. Fr. Prior, and throwing himself at his feet,
entreated that he might be clothed with the habit
of the Order, concealing nothing from him, neither
his birth, nor his place of residence, nor the cir-
cumstances of his vocation, etc. The Prior, ob-
serving that he was fragile in appearance and of
an apparently delicate constitution, remonstrated,
pointing out to him how great were the austerities
234 The Spirit St. Francis De Sales
of the Order, and reminding him of the bleakness
of the hills amidst which the monastery was
situated, and of the perpetual winter which reigns
there. The young man replied insisting that he
knew all this, and had counted the cost, but that
God would be his strength, and enable him by His
grace to overcome all obstacles. ‘‘ Even though,”
said he, “I should walk in the shadow of death I
shall fear no evil provided that God be with me.”
Then the Prior took a more serious tone. Deter-
mined to test to the utmost the courage and resolu-
tion of the postulant, he asked him sharply if he
knew all that was required of those who aspire to
enter the Carthusian Order. ‘‘ Are you aware,”
he said, ‘“‘ that in the first place we require him to
work at least one miracle? Can you do that?”
“I cannot,” replied the young man, ‘‘ but the
power of God within me can. I trust myself
entirely to His goodness. I am certain that having
called me to serve Him in this vocation, and im-
planted in me a thorough disgust for the things of
the world, He will not permit me to look back, nor
to return to that corrupt society which, with all my
heart and soul, I have renounced. Ask of me
whatever sign you will, I am convinced that God
will work a miracle, even through me, in testimony
of this truth.”
As he spoke the blood mounted to his forehead,
his eyes shone like stars, his whole visage seemed
on fire with enthusiasm.
Dom Bruno, astonished at the vehemence of his
words, opened his arms, and clasping him to his
heart received him at once among his children.
Then turning to those who stood around him,
A test of Religious Vocation 235
‘* My brothers,” he said, ‘‘ his is an undeniable
vocation. May God of His clemency often send
such labourers into the harvest of the Chartreuse.”’
And to the young postulant, ‘‘ Have confidence,
my son, God will help you, and will love you, and
you will love Him, and will serve Him among us.
This is the miracle we expect you to work.”
You will ask me, perhaps, what use our Blessed
Father could make of thisexample. I will tell you.
When he was admitting any young girl into your
congregation, my sisters, he invariably referred to
it. He used to speak to her only of Calvary, of the
nails, the thorns, the crosses, of inward mortifica-
tion, of surrender of will, and crucifixion of private
judgment, of dying wholly to self, in order to live
only with God, in God, and for God: in fine, of
living no longer according to natural inclinations
and feelings, but absolutely according to the spirit
of faith, and of your congregation.
Did anyone object that your Order was not so
rigorous, or severe, as he made it out to be; but
that, on the contrary, the life led by its members
was easy, without many outward austerities, as was
proved by the fact that even the infirm and sickly
were admitted into it, and attained to the same sanc-
tity as the rest, he replied: ‘‘ Believe me, that if the
body is there preserved as if it were a vessel of
election, the spirit is there tested and tried in all
possible ways, since the spirit that fails to stand
every possible trial is no stone fit for the building
up of this congregation.”
He went on to quote from the life of St. Bernard.
Against that holy man it was once urged that the
austerities and bodily macerations practised in his
236 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Order frightened away young men, and deterred
them from entering it. ‘‘ Many,” said the Saint,
‘““ see our crosses, but see not how well we are able
to carry them. It happens to our crosses, as it does
to those which are painted on the walls of a church
when the Bishop in consecrating it makes a second
cross upon them with holy oil. The people see the
cross made by the painter, but they do not see that
with which the Bishop has covered it. Our crosses,
so plainly visible, are softened by very many
inward consolations, which are concealed from the
eyes of worldlings because they understand not the
spiritual things of God, nor see how we can find
peace in this bitterness which so repels those whose
only thought is of themselves, and of their own
pleasures. In very truth,’’ our Blessed Father con-
tinued, ‘‘ the worldling may notice in the rosebed
of religion only the loveliness of the flowers, and
the sweetness of their perfume, but these conceal
many athorn. The crosses of community life are
hidden because the sisters of this congregation
have by interior mortification to make up for what
is lacking in external austerities.
This law of your Institute has been established
out of consideration for the weak and infirm, who
may be admitted among you, and to whose service
the stronger members have to devote themselves.
This is the reason why all who purpose to enter
the Order have to resolve to make war to the death
against their private judgment, and still more
against their self-will and self-love. This is why
all ought to mortify all their passions and affec-
tions, and absolutely to bend their understanding
under the yoke of obedience, to live, in short, no
Upon following the common life 237
longer according to the old man, but entirely
according to the new man, in holiness and in jus-
tice. So to live as to bear a continual cross even
until death, and dying upon it, with the Son of
God, to say, With Christ I am nailed to the Cross,
and I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.’’*
UPON FOLLOWING THE COMMON LIFE.
He always praised common life very highly. His
exalted opinion of its merits made him refuse to
allow the Sisters of the Visitation to practise
extraordinary austerities in respect to dress or food.
For these matters he prescribed rules such as can
easily be observed by anyone who wishes to lead
a christian life in the world. His spiritual daugh-
ters, following this direction, imitate the example
of Jesus Christ, of His Blessed Mother, and of the
disciples of our Lord, who led no other kind of life.
For the rest, they have at all times to submit them-
selves to the discretion and judgment of their
superiors, whose duty it is to decide for them on
the expediency of extraordinary mortifications after
hearing the circumstances of the case of any indi-
vidual sister.
Our Saint himself often, indeed, practised bodily
mortifications, but always with judgment and
prudence, for he knew full well that the object of
such austerities is the preservation of purity of soul,
not the destruction of bodily health.
In one word, he practically set the life of Jesus
Christ before that of St. John the Baptist.
*Gal. it, 19) 20.
238 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE JUDGING OF VOCATIONS.
Although our Blessed Father has given you the
fullest possible instructions on this subject, in his
seventeenth Conference, entitled, On voting in a
Community, I see that you are not quite satisfied
in the matter.
I know very well that your dissatisfaction does not
wise from any unworthy motive, but only from a
conscientious desire to do your duty to God, and to
the sisters whom you have ina way to judge. To
relieve your minds of doubt, I am about to supple-
ment the teaching of that Conference with a few
thoughts suggested to me at various times by
Blessed Francis himself, which I put before you
in words of my own.
In the first place, we must be careful never to
confuse the terms vocation and avocation, for their
meaning is very different.
An avocation is the condition of life in which we
serve God.
A vocation is His call to that condition of life.
When we call a servant to command him to do
something, the calling him is one thing, his obey-
ing and employing himself as directed quite
another; and this, even if he do the work precisely
as he is told, and no more. Now, there are two
sorts of vocation. The first is the call to faith or
grace; the second, the call to a particular avocation
in life.
To follow the first vocation, viz., to Faith, is
necessary for salvation, since he who refuses to
listen to this call and to obey its voice risks the loss
of his immortal soul. A pagan or heretic called by
Upon judging of Vocations 239
God to embrace Christianity or to submit to the
Catholic Church, and to the end neglecting this
call, must needs be lost, for out of the true Church
there is no salvation. Again, if a member of the
true Church who is spiritually dead in mortal sin,
refuse to listen to the call, or vocation, of prevent-
ing grace which bids him return to God by confes-
sion, or by contrition of heart, he is in a state of
damnation.
Not so, however, with the second kind of call or
vocation. As this is only to some particular con-
dition of life in the world or the cloister, although
we must not neglect it, but must listen with respect
to what it may please God to say to our heart, yet
essentially it is not of vital importance to the
welfare of our soul that we should follow such a
call, since, at the most, it is but an inward coun-
sel, which may be acted upon or not according to
our choice.
And now remember that the counsels given in
Holy Scripture are not precepts.* Our Blessed
Father has often said that it would be not only an
error, but a heresy, to maintain that there is any
kind of legitimate calling or avocation in which it
is impossible to save one’s soul. On the contrary,
in each, grace is offered, by means of which
we may Safely walk before God in holiness and
justice all the days of our life.
To deny this would be to cut off from the hope of
salvation, not thousands only, but millions of men
and women, those, namely, who are engaged
all their lives long in occupations which they have
undertaken, not only without a vocation from God,
*: Cor. vii.
240 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
but sometimes even against their own inclination.
This is the teaching of this Blessed Father in his
Philothea, where he says, “‘It is an error, nay, a
heresy, to wish to exclude the highest holiness of
life from the soldier’s barrack, the mechanic’s work-
shop, the courts of princes, or the household of
married people.”
He used to say that it is not sufficient merely to
love our calling, but that our most earnest endea-
vours as true and faithful christians should be to
strive to attain perfection in that same calling.
He remarked, too, that we do wrong to waste
time in arguing as to what that perfection consists
in. The glory of God should be the one aim of
every devout soul.
Only by the practice of virtue can that final end
be reached, and no virtue unaccompanied by charity
avails to attain to it. Therefore, charity is the bond
of all perfection, nay, itself is all perfection.
He attached much more importance to the spirit
in which a vocation is followed out, than to the mere
fact of its being embraced.
‘And this because the salvation of our souls,
which we shall owe to God’s grace, does not
depend so much on the nature of our particular
vocation or calling, but on our own persevering
faithful submission to the will of God, which will
of God is the salvation of us all.
Now, as we can save our souls, so we can also
lose them in any calling whatsoever.
Would you desire a more unmistakable vocation
than that of King Saul, or one more glorious than
that of Judas? Yet both were lost. Where will
you find one more troubled, and more interrupted
Upon judging of Vocations 241
by sin, than that of King David? Yet in spite of
all that happened to him, how happy was its issue.
The vocation of a certain young lady who
resolved upon taking the veil, but only out of a
sort of despair, and because irritated against her
family, was nevertheless approved by our Blessed
Father, who to justify his approval gave the follow-
ing explanation.
‘“ As regards the vocation of this young lady,
I consider it good, mingled though it be in her
mind with imperfections and desirable though it
would have been that she should have come to God
simply and solely for the sake of the happiness of
being wholly His. Remember that those whom
God calls to Himself are not all drawn by Him
with the same kind, or degree, of motives.
There are but few who give themselves absolutely
to His service from the one only desire to be His,
and to serve Him alone.
Among the women whose conversion the Gospel
has made famous, Magdalen alone came through
love, and with love.
The adulteress came through public shame, the
woman of Samaria from private and individual self-
reproach, the woman of Canaan in order to be
healed of bodily infirmity. Again, among the
saints, St. Paul, the first hermit, at the age of
fifteen, took refuge in his cave to escape persecu-
tion. St. Ignatius Loyola came through distress
and suffering, and so on with hundreds of others.
We must not expect all to begin by being perfect.
It matters little how we commence, provided only
that we are firmly resolved to go on well, and to
end well. Certainly Leah intruded with scant
Q
242 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
courtesy into Rachel’s promised place, as the wife
of Jacob, yet she afterwards conducted herself so
irreproachably, and behaved with such modesty
and sweetness, that to her rather than to Rachel
was vouchsafed the blessing of being an ancestress
of our Lord.
Those who were compelled to come into the
marriage feast in the Gospel, ate, and drank of the
best, nor, had they been the guests for whom the
banquet was prepared, could they have fared better.
If, then, we would have a pledge of their good
living and perseverance, we must look at the good
dispostions of those who enter Religion rather than
at the motives which impel them: for there are
many souls who would not have entered the con-
vent at all if the world had smiled upon them, and
whom we nevertheless may find to be resolute in
trampling under their feet the vanities of that same
world.
Upon PRUDENCE AND SIMPLICITY.
‘“ I know not,” said our Blessed Father, on one
occasion, ‘f what this poor virtue of prudence has
done to me that I find it so difficult to love it: if
I do so at all, it is only because I have no choice
in the matter, seeing that it is the very salt of life,
and a light to show us the way out of its diff-
culties.
On the other hand, the beauty of simplicity
charms me. I would rather possess the harmless-
ness of one dove than the wisdom of a hundred
serpents. I know that a combination of wisdom
and simplicity is useful, and that the Gospel
recommends it to us;* but I am of opinion that
*Matt. x. 16.
Upon Prudence and Simplicity 243
in this matter it should be as it is with certain
medicines, in which a minute dose of poison is
mixed with many wholesome drugs. If the doses
of serpent and dove were equal, I would not trust
the medicine; the serpent can kill the dove, the
dove cannot kill the serpent. Besides, there is a
sort of prudence that is human and worldly which
Scripture calls carnal wisdom,* as it is only used
for wrong-doing, and is so dangerous and so
subtle that those who possess it are unconscious
of their own danger. They deceive others, yet
are the first to be themselves deceived.
I am told that in an age so crafty as our own
prudence is necessary, if only to prevent our being
wronged. I say nothing against this dictum, but
I do believe that more in harmony with the mind
of the Gospel is that which teaches us that it is
great wisdom in the sight of God to suffer men
to devour us, and to take away our goods,t bear-
ing the loss of them joyfully, knowing that a
better and a more secure substance awaits us. In
a word, a good christian should always choose
rather to be the anvil than the hammer, the robbed
than the robber, the victim than the murderer, the
martyr than the tyrant. Let the world rage, let
the prudence of so-called philosophy stand aghast,
let the flesh despair; it is better to be good and
simple than clever and wicked.”
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Some of the friends of our Saint, actuated by
this spirit of worldly prudence, having seen the
flattering reception given by the public to his
“mom. viii. 6. f2 Cor. xi. 20.
244 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Philothea, which had at once been translated into
various languages, advised him not to write any
more books, as it was impossible that any other
work from his pen should meet with equal success.
These remarks were unwelcome to our Blessed
Father, who afterwards said to me: ‘‘ These good
people no doubt love me, and their love makes
them speak as they do, out of the abundance of
their hearts; but if they will only be so good as to
turn their eyes for a moment from me, vile and
wretched as I am, and fix them upon God, they
will soon change their note; for if it has pleased
Him to give His blessing to that first little book
of mine, why should He deny it to my next?
And if from little Philothea He made His glory
to shine forth, as He brought forth the light from
darkness,* and the sacred fire from the clayT, is
His arm thereby shortened, or His power dimin-
ished? Can He not -make living and thirst-
quenching water flow forth from the jaw-bone of
an ass? But these good people do not dwell upon
such considerations; they think solely of my per-
sonal glory, as if we ought to desire credit for
ourselves, and not rather ascribe all to God, who
works in us whatever good seems to emanate from
us.
Now, according to the spirit of the Gospel, so
far from its being right to depend upon the ap-
plause of the world, St. Paul declares that if we
please men, we are not the servants of God,{ the
friendship of the world being enmity with God.
If then that little book has brought to me some vain
and unmerited praise, it would be well worth my
*Gen. i. 2, 3,- +2/Maeb. i 19, 22, Mal. 1. 10,
Upon Mental Prayer 245
while to build upon its foundation some inferior
work, so as to beat down the smoke of this incense,
and earn that contempt from men which makes us
so much the more pleasing to God, because. we are
thereby more and more crucified to the world.”
Upon MENTAL PRAYER.
I once asked our Blessed Father if it was not
better to take one single point for mental prayer,
and to draw from this point one single affection and
resolution, as I thought that by taking three points
and deducing from them very many affections and
resolutions great confusion and perplexity of mind
were occasioned. He replied that unity and sim-
plicity in all things, but especially in spiritual
exercises, must always be preferred to multiplicity
and complexity, but that to beginners, and to those
little skilled in this exercise, several points should
be proposed so as fully to occupy their minds.
I enquired whether, supposing that a single
point were taken, it would not be better to dwell
likewise upon only one affection and resolution
rather than upon several. He answered that when
Spring is richest in flowers, bees make the least
honey, because they are so delighted to flutter from
flower to flower that they do not give themselves
time to extract the essence and spirit of which they
form their combs. Drones make a great deal of
noise and produce a very small result. And to the
question whether it was not better often to repeat
and dwell upon the same affection and resolution,
rather than to develop and expand it by thinking
it out, he replied that we ought to imitate painters
246 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and sculptors, who work by repeating again and
again the strokes of their brush and chisel, and that
in order to make a deep impression on the heart it
is often necessary to go over the same thing many
times.
He added that as those sink, who in swimming
move their legs and arms too rapidly, it being
necessary to stretch them leisurely and easily, so
also those who are too eager in mental prayer, faint
away in their thoughts, their distracted meditations
causing them only pain and dissatisfaction.
I am asked to explain that saying attributed by
our Blessed Father to the great St. Anthony, that
he who prays ought to have his mind so fixed
upon God, as even to forget that he is praying.
Here is the explanation in our Saint’s own words.
He says in one of his Conferences: ‘‘ The soul
must be kept steadfastly in this path (that, namely,
of love and confidence in God) without allowing it
to waste its powers in continually trying to ascer-
tain what precisely it is doing and whether its work
is satisfactory. Alas! our satisfactions and con-
solations do not always satisfy God: they only
feed that miserable love and care of ourselves which
has to do neither with God nor with the thought
of God. Certainly, children whom our Lord has
set before us as models of the perfection to be aimed
at by us are, generally speaking, especially in
the presence of their parents, quite untroubled
about what is to happen. They cling to them
without a thought of providing for themselves.
The pleasures their parents procure them they
accept in good faith and enjoy in simplicity, with-
out any curiosity whatever as to their causes or
Upon Mental Prayer 247
effects. The love they feel for their parents and their
reliance upon them is all they need. Those whose
one desire is to please the Divine Lover have
neither inclination nor leisure to turn back upon
themselves, for their minds tend continually in the
direction whither love carries them.’’*
There isa saying of Tauler’s, that holy man who
wrote a book on mystic theology, which our Blessed
Francis held in high esteem, and was never weary
of inculcating upon those of his disciples who were
anxious to lead a devout life, or who, having
already entered upon it, needed encouragement to
make progress in it. Tauler was asked where he,
who was so great a contemplative, and who held
such close and familiar communication with God,
had found God. He answered, ‘ Where I found
myself.” On being further asked where he had
found himself, he said, ‘*‘ Where I forgot myself in
God.”’
He went on to say, We must lose ourselves in
order to find ourselves in God, as it is written:
He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that
hateth his life in this world keepeth tt unto life
eternal.t No man can serve two masters, God and
mammon.{ To follow one you must of necessity
quit the other. There is no fellowship between light
and darkness or between Christ and Belial.§
The two lovers who built, one the City of Jeru-
salem, the other the City of Babylon, of whom St.
Augustine speaks, have nothing in common. It is
the struggle of Esau and Jacob over again.”
*Conf. xii. tJobn xii. 25. {[St. Matt. 24.
§2 Cor. Vi pipis.
248 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Upon ASPIRATIONS.
As the Saints own ordinary and favourite
spiritual exercise was the practice of the presence
of God, so he advised those whom he directed in
the ways of holiness to devote themselves most ear-
nestly to recollection, and to the use of frequent
aspirations or ejaculatory prayers.
On one occasion I asked him whether there
would be more spiritual loss in omitting the exer-
cise of mental prayer or in omitting that of recol-
lection and aspirations. He answered that the
omission of mental prayer might be repaired dur-
ing the day or night by frequent withdrawal of t*-e
mind into God and by aspirations to Him, but that
mental prayer unaccompanied by aspirations was,
in his estimation, like a bird with clipped wings.
He went on to say that: “by recollection we retire
into God, and draw God into ourselves, as it is
written: I opened my mouth, and panted, because
I longed for Thy commandments,* by which is
meant the mouth of the heart to which God always
graciously inclines His ear. In the Canticle the
bride says that her Beloved led her into His cellar
of wine, he set în order charity in me.t Or, as
another version has it, He enrolled me under the
banner of His love. Just as wine is stored up in
vaults or cellars, and as soldiers gather under their
standards or banners; so all the faculties-of our
soul gather together around the goodness and love
of God by short spiritual retreats, made from time
to time throughout the day. But when are they
*Psalm cxviii. 131. ‘tCant. ii 4.
Upon Aspirations. 249
made, and in what place? At any moment, and in
any place, and there is no meal, or company, or
employment, or occupation of any sort which can
hinder them, just as they on their part neither hin-
der nor interfere with anything that has to be done.
On the contrary, this is a salt which seasons every
kind of food, or rather a sugar which never spoils
any sauce. It consists only in inward glances
from ourselves and from God, from ourselves into
God, and from God into ourselves, without pic-
tures or speech, or any outward aid; and the
simpler this recollection is the better it is. As re-
gards aspirations, they also are short but swift
dartings of the soul into God, and can be made by
a simple mental glance cast towards Him. Cast
thy care, or thoughts, upon the Lord,* says David,
The more vigorously an arrow is shot from the bow
the more swift is its flight. The more vehement
and loving is an aspiration, the more truly is it a
spiritual lightning-flash. These transports or aspi-
rations, of which we have so many formulas, are
the better the shorter they are. One of St. Bruno
seems to me excellent on account of its brevity:
O goodness of God; that also of St. Francis,
My God and my all! and that of St. Augustine,
Oh! to love, to go forward, to die to self, to reach
God! ”
Our Blessed Father treats excellently of these two
exercises in his Philothea, and recommends them
strongly, saying that they hold to one another, as
did Jacob and Esau at their birth, and follow one
another, as do respiration and aspiration. And just
as in respiration we draw the fresh outer air into
*Psalm liv. 23.
250 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
our lungs, and by aspiration drive out that into
which the heat of our bodies has entered, so by the
breath of recollection we draw God into ourselves,
or retire into God, and by aspirations we cast our-
selves into the arms of His goodness.
Happy the soul that often thus breathes, and thus
aspires, for she abides in God and God in her.
UPON INTERIOR RECOLLECTION AND EJACULATORY
PRAYERS.
The two exercises which he especially recom-
mended to his penitents were interior recollection
and ejaculatory aspirations and prayers. By them,
he said, the defects of all other spiritual exercises
might be remedied, and without them those others
were sSaltless, that is, without savour. He called
interior recollection the collecting or gathering up
of all the powers of the soul into the heart, there to
hołd communion with God, alone with Him, heart
to heart.
This Blessed Francis could do in all places and
at all hours without being hindered by any com-
pany or occupations. This recollection of God and
of ourselves was the favourite exercise of the great
St. Augustine, who so often exclaimed: ‘ Lord,
let me know Thee, and know myself !’’ and of the
great St. Francis, who cried out: ‘‘ Who art Thou,
my God and my Lord? and who am I, poor dust
and a worm of the earth?’’ This frequent looking
up to God and then down upon ourselves keeps us
wonderfully to our duties, and either prevents us
from falling, or helps us to raise ourselves quickly
from our falls, as the Psalmist says: I set the Lord
Upon doing and enduring 251
always in my sight: for He is at my right hand,
that I be not moved.*
Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by
Thy will thou hast conducted me, and with Thy
glory Thou hast received me.t He teaches us
how to practise this exercise in his Philothea,
where, dealing with the subject of aspirations or
ejaculatory prayers, he says: ‘“‘ In this exercise of
Spiritual retreat and ejaculatory prayers lies the
great work of devotion. We may make up for
the deficiency of all other prayers, but failure in
this can scarcely ever be repaired. Without it we
cannot well lead the contemplative life, and can
only lead the active life very imperfectly; without
it repose is idleness, and labour only vexation.
This ts why I conjure you to embrace it with
994
your whole heart, and never to lay it aside.” $
UPON DOING AND ENDURING.
His opinion was that one ounce of suffering was
worth more than a pound of action; but then it
must be of suffering sent by God, and not self-
chosen. Indeed, to endure pain which is of our
own choosing is rather to do than to suffer, and,
speaking in general, our having chosen it spoils
our good work, because self-love: has insinuated
itself into our motives. We wish to serve God in
one way, while He desires to be served in another;
we wish what He wishes, but not as He wishes it.
We do not submit ourselves wholly and as we
should do to His will.
A person who was very devout and who was
*Psalm xv. 8. tPsalm Ixxii. 24. {Part ii. c. xii. and xiii
252 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
accustomed to spend much time in mental prayer,
being attacked with severe headache, was forbidden
by her doctor to practise this devotion, as it in-
creased her suffering and prevented her recovery.
The patient much distressed at this prohibition
wrote to consult our Blessed Father on the sub-
ject, and this is his reply:
‘‘ As regards meditation,’’ he says, ‘‘ the doc-
tors are right. While you are so weak, you must
abstain from it; but to make up you must double
your ejaculatory prayers, and offer them all to God
as an act of acquiescence in His good pleasure,
which, though preventing you from meditating, in
no way separates you from Himself, but, on the
contrary, enables you to unite yourself more closely
to Him by the practice of calm and holy resigna-
tion. What matters it how or by what means we
are united to God? Truly, since we seek Him
alone, and since we find Him no less in mortifica-
tion than in prayer, especially when He visits us
with sickness, the one ought to be as welcome to us
as the other. Moreover, ejaculatory prayers and
the silent lifting of the heart to God, are really a
continued meditation, and the patient endurance
of pain and distress is the worthiest offering we can
possibly make to Him who saved us through suffer-
ing. Read also occasionally some good book that
will fill up what is wanting to you of food for the
spirit.”’
Upon MORTIFICATION AND PRAYER.
Our Blessed Father considered that mortification
without prayer is like a body without a soul; and
prayer without mortification like a soul without a
body. He desired that the two should never be
Upon Mortification and Prayer 258
separated, but that, like Martha and Mary, they
should without disputing, nay, in perect harmony,
unite in serving our Lord. He compared them to
the scales in a balance, one of which goes down
when the other goes up. In order to raise the soul
by prayer, we must lower the body by mortifica-
tion, otherwise the flesh will weigh down the soul
and hinder it from rising up to God, whose spirit
will not dwell with a man sunk in gross material
delights or cares.
The lily and the rose of prayer and contempla-
tion can only grow and flourish among the thorns
of mortification. We cannot reach the hill of in-
cense, the symbol of prayer, except by the steep
ascent on which we find the myrrh of mortification,
needed to preserve our bodies from the corruption
of sin.
Just as incense, which in Scripture represents
prayer, does not give forth its perfume until it is
burned, neither can prayer ascend to Heaven unless
it proceeds from a mortified heart. Mortification
averts temptations, and prayer becomes easy when
we are sheltered under the protecting wings of
mortification. When we are dead to ourselves and
to our passions we begin to live to God. He
begins to feed us in prayer with the bread of life
and understanding, and with the manna of His
inspirations. In fine, we become like that pillar
of aromatic smoke to which the Bride is compared,
compounded of all the spices of the perfumer.*
Our Blessed Father’s maxim on this subject was
that: ‘‘ We ought to live in this world as if our
soul were in heaven and our body in the tomb.”
*Cant. iii. 6,
254 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
The practice of recollection of the presence of
God was so much insisted upon by our Blessed
Father that, as you know, my sisters, he recom-
mended it to your Congregation to be the daily
bread and constant nourishment of your souls.
He used to say that to be recollected in God is
the occupation of the blessed; nay, more, the very
essence of their blessedness. Our Lord in the
Gospel says that the angels see continually, with-
out interruption or intermission, the face of their
Father in heaven, and is it not life eternal to see
God and to be always in His most holy presence,
like the angels, who are called the supporters of
His throne.
You know that whenever you are gathered to-
gether for recreation, one of you is always
appointed as a sort of sentinel to watch over the
proper observance of this holy practice, pro-
nouncing from time to time, aloud, these words:
“Sisters, we remind your Charities of the holy
presence of God,” adding, if it has been a day of
general communion, ‘‘ and of the holy communion
of to-day.”
Our Blessed Father on this subject says in his
Devout Life: ‘‘ Begin all your prayers, whether
mental or vocal, by an act of the presence of God.
Adhere strictly to this rule, the value of which you
will soon realize.’’*
And again: ‘“‘ Most of the failures of good
people in the discharge of their duty come to pass
because they do not keep themselves sufficiently in
the presence of God.”
*Part ti. chap. i
His unity of spirit with God 255
If you desire more instruction on the matter,
read again what he has written about it in the same
book.
HIS UNITY OF SPIRIT WITH GOD.
He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit,* says
St. Paul.
Our Blessed Father had arrived at that degree
of union with God which is in some sort a unity,
because the will of God in it becomes the soul of our
will, that is, its life and moving principle, even as
our soul is the life and the moving principle of our
body. Hence his rapturous ejaculation: ‘‘ Oh!
how good a thing it is to live only in God, to
labour only in God, to rejoice only in God! ”
Again, he expresses this sentiment even more
forcibly in the following words: ‘‘ Henceforth,
with the help of God’s grace, I will no longer de-
sire to be anything to any one, or that any one
be anything to me, save in God, and for God only.
I hope to attain to this when I shall have abased
myself utterly before Him. Blessed be God! It
seems to me that all things are indeed as nothing
to me now, except in Him, for whom and in whom
I love every soul more and more tenderly.”
Elsewhere he says: ‘‘ Ah! when will this poor
human love of attentions, courtesies, responsive-
ness, sympathy, and favours be purified and
brought into perfect accordance with the all pure
love of the Divine will? When will our self-love
cease to desire outward tokens of God’s nearness
and rest content with the changeless and abiding
assurance which He gives to us of His eternity?
*i Gor. wir 19;
256 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
What can sensible presence add to a love which
God has made, which He supports, and which He
maintains? What marks can be lacking of per-
severance in a unity which God has created?
Neither presence nor absence can add anything to
a love formed by God Himself.”
HIS GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR SPIRITUAL
CONSOLATIONS.
In one of his letters written to a person both
virtuous and honourable, in whom he had great
confidence, he says: ‘‘If you only knew how God
deals with my heart, you would thank Him for His
goodness to me, and entreat Him to give me the
spirit of counsel and of fortitude, so that I may
rightly act upon the inspirations of wisdom and
understanding which He communicates to me.”
He often expressed the same thought to me in
different words. “‘Ah!’’ he would say, ‘‘ how good
must not the God of Israel be to such as are
upright of heart, since He is so gracious to those
even who have a heart like mine, miserable, heed-
less of His graces, and earth-bound! Oh! how
sweet is His spirit to the souls that love Him and
seek Him with all their might! Truly, His name
is as balm, and it is no wonder that so many ardent
spirits follow Him with enthusiastic devotion,
eagerly and joyously hastening to Him, led by the
sweetness of His attractions. Oh! what great
things we are taught by the unction of divine good-
ness! Being at the same time illumined by so soft
and calm a light that we can scarcely tell whether
the sweetness is more grateful than the light, or
His gratitude to God, £c. 257
the light than the sweetness! Truly, the breasts
of the Spouse are better than wine, and sweeter
than all the perfumes of Arabia.*
Sometimes I tremble for fear that God may be
giving me my Paradise in this world! I do not
really know what adversity is; I have never looked
poverty in the face; the pains which I have expe-
rienced have been mere scratches, just grazing the
skin ; the calumnies spoken against me are nothing
but a gust of wind, and the remembrance of them
dies away with the sound of the voice which utters
them. It is not only that I am free from the ills
of life, I am, as it were, choked with good things,
both temporal and spiritual. Yet in the midst of
all I remain ungrateful and insensible to His good-
ness. Oh! for pity’s sake, help me sometimes to
thank God, and to pray Him not to let me have
all my reward at once!
He, indeed, shows that He knows my weakness
and my misery by treating me thus like a child,
and feeding me with sweetmeats and milk, rather
than with more solid food. But oh, when will He
give me the grace, after having basked in the sun-
shine of His favours, to sigh and groan a little
under the burden of His Cross, since to reign with
Him, we must suffer with Him, and to live with
Him, we must die together with Him? Assuredly
we must either love or die, or rather we must die
that we may love Him; that is to say, die to all
other love to live only for His love, and live only
for Him who died that we may live eternally in
the embrace of His divine goodness.”
“Gamticn i by è
258 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE SHEDDING OF TEARS.
Although he was himself very easily moved to
tears, he did not set any specially high value on
what is called the gift of tears, except when it pro-
ceeds, not from nature, but directly from the
Father of light, who sends His rain upon the earth
from the clouds. He told me once that, just as it
would be contrary to physical laws for rain, in
place of falling from heaven to earth, to rise from
earth to heaven; so it was against all order that
sensible devotion should produce that which is
supernatural. For this would be for nature to
produce grace. He compared tears shed, in
moments of mental excitement, by persons gifted
with a strong power of imagination, to hot rains
which fall during the most sultry days of summer,
and which scorch rather than refresh vegetation.
But when supernatural devotion, seated in the
higher powers of the soul, breaking down all re-
straining banks, spreads itself over the whole being
of man, he compared the tears it causes him to
shed to a mighty, irresistible and fertilising torrent,
making glad the City of God. Tears of this sort,
he thought much to be desired, seeing that they
give great glory to God and profit to the soul. Of
those who shed such tears, he said, the Gospel
Beatitude speaks when it tells us that: Blessed
are they that weep.*
In one of his letters he writes as follows: ‘‘I say
nothing, my good daughter, about your imagining
yourself hard of heart, because you have no tears
to shed. No, my child, your heart has nothing to
*Matt: v. 5s.
Upon the shedding of tears 259
do with this. Your lack of tears proceeds not from
any want of affectionate resolve to love, God, but
from the absence of sensible devotion, which does
not depend at all upon our heart, but upon our
natural temperament, which we are unable to
change. for just as in this world it is impossible
for us to make rain to fali when we want it, or to
stop it at our own good ;'leasure, so also it is not
in our power to weep from a feeling of devotion
when we want to do so, or, on the other hand, not
to weep when carried away by our emotion. Our
remaining unmoved at prayer and meditation pro-
ceeds, not from any fault of ours, but from the
providence of God, who wishes us to travel by
land, and often by desert land, rather than by
water, and who wills to accustom us to labour and
hardship in our spiritual life.” On this same sub-
ject I once heard him make one of his delightful
remarks: “ What!” he cried, ‘‘are not dry sweet-
meats quite as good as sweet drinks? Indeed they
have one special advantage. You can carry them
about with you in your pocket, whereas the sweet
drink must be disposed of on the spot. It is
childish to refuse to eat your food when none other
is to be had, because it is quite dry. The sea is
God’s, for He made it, but His hands also laid the
foundations of the dry land, that is to say, of the
earth. We are land animals, not fish. One goes
to heaven by land as easily as by water. God does
not send the deluge every day. Great floods are
not less to be feared than great droughts! ”
UPON JOY AND SADNESS.
As the blessedness of the life to come is called
260 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
joy in Scripture, Good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of thy Lord, so also it is in joy that
the happiness of this present life consists. Not,
however, in all kinds of joy, for the joy of the
hypocrite is but for a moment,* that is to say,
lasts but for a moment.
It is said of the wicked that they spend their
days in wealth, and in a moment go down to hell,t
and that mourning taketh hold of the end ef false
joy;
True, joy can only proceed from inward peace,
and this peace from the testimony of a good con-
science, which is called a continual feast.§
This is that joy of the Lord, and in the Lord,
which the Apostle recommends so strongly, pro-
vided it be accompanied by charity and modesty.
Our Blessed Father thought so highly of this
joyous peace and peaceful joy that he looked upon
it as constituting the only true happiness possible
in this life. Indeed he put this belief of his into
such constant practice that a great servant of God,
one of his most intimate friends, declared him to
be the possessor of an imperturbable and unalter-
able peace.
On the other hand, he was as great an enemy to
sadness, trouble, and undue hurry and eagerness,
as he was a friend to peace and joy. Besides all
that he says on the subject in his Philothea and his
Theotimus, he writes thus to a soul who, under the
pretext of austerity and penance, had abandoned
herself to disquietude and grief: Be at peace, and
nourish your heart with the sweetness of heavenly
* Job xx. § tfob xxi. 13. @ Prov. xiv. 1,
$ Ibid, xv. 15.
Upon the degrees of true devotion 261
love, without which man’s heart is without life, and
man’s life without happiness. Never give way to
sadness, that enemy of devotion. What is there
that should be able to sadden the servant of Him
who will be our joy through all eternity? Surely
sin, and sin only, should cast us down and grieve
us. If we have sinned, when once our act of sorrow
at having sinned has been made, there ought to
follow in its train joy and holy consolation.
UPON THE DEGREES OF TRUE DEVOTION.
Loving devotion, or devout love, has three
degrees, which are: 1. When we perform those
exercises which relate to the service of God, but
with some sluggishness. 2. When we betake
ourselves to them with readiness. 3. When we
run and even fly to execute them with joy and
with eagerness.
Our Blessed Father illustrates this by two very
apt comparisons.
‘‘ Ostriches never fly, barn door fowls fly heavily,
close to the ground, and but seldom; eagles, doves,
and swallows fly often, swiftly and high. Thus
sinners never fly to God, but keep to the ground,
nor so much as look up to Him.
Those who are in God’s grace but have not yet
attained to devotion, fly to God by their good
actions rarely, slowly, and very heavily; but
devout souls fly to God frequently and promptly
and soar high above the earth.’’* His second com-
parison is this:
‘‘ Just as a man when convalescent from an ill-
ness walks as much as is necessary, but slowly and
*The Devout Life. Part i. c. i.
262 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
wearily, so the sinner being healed from his
iniquity walks as much as God commands him to
do, but still only slowly and heavily, until he
attains to devotion. Thev, like a man in robust
health, he runs and bounds along the way of God’s
commandments; and, more than that, he passes
swiftly into the paths of the counsels and of
heavenly inspirations. In fact, charity and super-
natural devotion are not more different from one
another than flame from fire, seeing that charity is
a Spiritual fire, and when its flame burns fiercely
is called devotion. ‘Thus devotion adds nothing to
the fire of charity except the flame, which renders
charity prompt, active, and diligent, not only in
observing the commandments of God, but also in
the practice of the counsels and heavenly inspira-
tions.”
THE TEST OF TRUE DEVOTION.
It was his opinion that the touchstone of true
devotion is the regulation of exercises of piety
according to one’s state of life. He often
compared devotion to a liquid which takes the form
of the vessel into which it is put. Here are his
words to Philothea on the subject*: ‘* Devotion,”
he says, ‘‘ must be differently practised by a gentle-
man, by an artisan, by a servant, by a prince, by a
widow, by a maiden, by a wife, and not only must
the practice of devotion be different, but it must in
measure and in degree be accommodated to the
strength, occupations, and duties of each indi-
vidual. I ask you, Philothea, would it be proper
for a Bishop to wish to lead the solitary life of a
Carthusian monk? If a father of a family were as
*The Devout Life. Part i. c. 3.
The test of true devotion 263
heedless of heaping up riches as a Capuchin; if an
artisan spent the whole day in church like a monk;
if a monk, like a Bishop, were constantly in contact
with the world in the service of his neighbour,
would not the devotion of each of ihese be mis-
placed, ill-regulated, and laughable? Yet this mis-
take is very often made, and the world, which can-
not or will not distinguish between devotion and
indiscretion in those who think themselves devout,
murmurs against and blames piety in general,
though in reality piety has nothing to do with mis-
takes such as these.’’
He goes on to say: ‘“ When creating them, God
commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits,
each according to its kind; so He commands chris-
tians, who are the living plants of His Church, to
produce fruits of devotion, each according to his
state of life and calling.”
At the close of the same chapter, our Blessed
Father says: ‘‘ Devotion or piety, when it is real,
spoils nothing, but on the contrary perfects every-
thing. Whenever it clashes with the legitimate
calling of those who profess it, you may be quite
certain that such devotion is spurious. ‘The
bee,’ says Aristotle, ‘draws her honey from a
flower, without injuring that flower in the least,
and leaves it fresh and intact as she found it.’ ”
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SERVANT OF Gop.
Some think that they are not making any pro-
gress in the service of God unless they feel sensible
devotion and interior joy continually, forgetting
that the road to heaven is not carpeted with rose
leaves but rather bristling with thorns. Does not
264 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the divine oracle tell us that through much tribula-
tion we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven? And
that it is only taken by those who do violence to
themselves? Our Blessed Father writes thus to a
soul that was making the above mistake:
‘“ Live wholly for God, and for the sake of the
love which He has borne to you, do you bear with
yourself in all your miseries. In fact, the being a
good servant of God does not mean the being always
spiritually consoled, the always feeling sweet
and calm, the never feeling aversion or repugnance
to what is good. If this were so, neither St. Paul,
nor St. Angela, nor St. Catherine of Siena, could
have served God well. To be a servant of God is
to be charitable towards our neighbour, to have, in
the superior part of our soul, an unswerving resolu-
tion to follow the will of God, joined to the deepest
humility and a simple confidence in Him; however
many times we fall, always to rise up again; in
fine, to be patient with ourselves in our miseries,
and with others in their imperfections.”
Another error into which good people fall is that
of always wanting to find out whether or not they
are in a state of grace. If you tranquillize them on
this point, then they begin to torment themselves
as to the exact amount of progress they have made,
and are actually making, in this happy state of
grace, as though their progress were in any way
their own work. They quite forget that though
one may plant and another water, it is God who
gives the increase.
In order to cure this spiritual malady, which bor-
ders very closely upon presumption, he gives in
another of his letters the following wise counsel:
That devotion does not always, dc. 265
“ Remember that all that is past is nothing, and
that every day we should say with David: Now
only am I beginning to love my God truly. Do
much for God, and do nothing without love, let
this be your aim, eat and drink for this.”
THAT DEVOTION DOES NOT ALWAYS SPRING FROM
CHARITY.
‘‘Do not deceive yourself,” he once said to me,
‘‘ people may be very devout, and at the same time
vemy wicked.’ ‘But,’ I said, “‘they are then
surely not devout, but hypocrites!’’ ‘‘ No, no,”
he answered, ‘‘I am speaking of true devotion.”
As I was quite unable to solve this riddle, I begged
him to explain it to me, which he did most kindly,
and, if I can trust my memory, more or less as fol-
lows:
‘“ Devotion is of itself and of its own nature a
moral and acquired virtue, not one that is super-
natural and infused, otherwise it would be a theo-
logical virtue, which it is not. It is then a virtue,
subordinate to that which is called Religion, and
according to some is only one of its acts;* as
religion again is subordinate to one of the four
cardinal virtues, namely justice. Now you know
that all the moral virtues, and even the theological
ones of faith and hope, are compatible with mortal
sin, although become, as it were, shapeless and
dead, being without charity, which is their form,
their soul, their very life. For, if one can have
faith so great as to be able to move mountains,
without charity, and yet, precisely because charity
is absent, be utterly worthless and wicked; if it is
possible to be a true prophet and yet a bad man,
*S. Thomas 24, 24¢€, Quaest, lxxxi., art. 2.
266 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
as were Saul, Balaam, and Caiphas; to work
miracles as Judas is believed to have done, and yet
to be sinful as he was; if we can give all our goods
to the poor, and suffer martyrdom by fire, without
having charity, much more may we be devout with-
out being charitable, since devotion is a virtue less
estimable in its nature than those which we have
mentioned. You must not then think it strange
when I tell you that it is possible to be devout and
yet wicked, since we may have faith, mercy,
patience, and constancy to the extent of which I
have spoken, and yet, with all that be stained with
many deadly vices, such as pride, envy, hatred, in-
temperance, and the like.”
“What then; 1 asked, “is a truly devour
man?” He answered: “I tell you again that,
though in sin, one may be truly devout. But such
devotion, though a virtue, is dead, not living.” I
rejoined: ‘‘ But how can this dead devotion be
real?” ‘‘In the same way,” he replied, :“‘as a
dead body is a real body, soulless though it be.”
I rejoined: ‘* But a dead body is not really a man.”
He answered: ‘“‘ It is not a true man, whole and
perfect, but it is the true body of a man, and the
body of a true man though dead. Thus, devotion
without charity is true, though dead and imperfect.
It is true devotion dead and shapeless, but not true
devotion living and fully formed. It is only neces-
sary to draw a distinction between the words, true,
and complete or perfect, which is done so clearly by
St. Thomas,* in order to find the solution of your
difficulty. He who possesses devotion without
charity has true , but not perfect or complete devo-
*2a, 2a€ Quaest, Ixxxii. to lxxxviii.
That devotion does not always, £c. 267
tion; in him who has charity, devotion is not only
true but perfect. By charity he becomes good, and
by devotion idevout; losing charity he loses super-
natural goodness and becomes sinful or bad, but
does not necessarily cease to be devout. This is
why I told you that one could be devout and yet
wicked. So also by mortal sin we do not recessarily
lose faith or hope, except we deliberateiy make an
act of unbelief or of despair.’’
He had expressed a somewhat similar idea in
the first chapter of his Philothea, though I had not
then noticed it. These are his words:
‘Devotion is nothing more than a spiritual
agility and vivacity, helped by which charity acts
more readily; or better, helped by which we more
readily elicit acts of charity. It belongs to charity to
make us keep God’s commandments, but it belongs
to devotion to make us keep them promptly and
diligently. This is why he who does not observe
all the commandments of God cannot be con-
sidered either good or supernaturally devout, since
in order to be good we must have charity, and to
be devout we must have besides charity great alert-
ness and promptitude in doing charitable actions.’’*
In another of his books, speaking to Theotimus,
he says:
“ All true lovers of God are equal in this, that all
give their heart to God, and with all their strength ;
but they are unequal in this, that they give it
diversely and in different manners, whence some
give all their heart, with all their strength, but less
perfectly than others. This one gives it all by mar-
tyrdom; this, all by virginity; this, all by the
*The Devout Life, Part i., chap. 1.
268 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
pastoral office; and whilst all give it all by the
observance of the commandments, yet some give it
with less perfection than others.’’*
We must remember that true devotion cannot be
restricted to the practice of one virtue only ; we must
employ all our powers in the worship and service
of God. One of the chief maxims of Blessed
Francis was that the sort of devotion which is not
only not a hindrance but actually a help to us in our
legitimate calling is the only true one for us, and
that any other is false for us. He illustrates this
teaching to Philothea by saying that devotion is
like a liquid which takes the shape of the vessel
into which it is put. He even went further, boldly
declaring that it was not simply an error but a
heresy to exclude devotion from any calling what-
ever, provided it be a just and legitimate one. This
shows the mistake of those who imagine that we
cannot save our souls in the world, as if salvation
were only for the Pharisee, and not for the Pub-
lican, nor for the house of Zaccheus. This error
which approaches very nearly to that of Pelagius,
makes salvation to be dependent on certain callings,
as though the saving of our souls were the work of
nature rather than of grace. Our Blessed Father
supports his teaching in this matter by many
examples, proving that in every condition of life
we may be holy and may consequently save our
souls, and arrive at a very high degree of
glory.
He concludes by saying: ‘‘ Some even have been
known to lose perfection in solitude, which is often
so helpful for its attainment, and to have regained
*Book x., chap. 3.
Upon perfect contentment, ce. 269
it in a busy city life which seems to be so unfavour-
able to it. Wherever we are, we can and ought to
aspire to the perfect life.”
UPON PERFECT CONTENTMENT IN THE PRIVATION
OF ALL CONTENT.
It is true that the devout life, which is nothing
but an intense and fervent love of God, isan angelic
life and full of contentment and of extraordinary
consolation. It is, however, also true that those
who submit themselves to the discipline of God,
even while experiencing the sweetness of this divine
love, must prepare their soul for temptation. The
path which leads to the Land of Promise is beset
with difficulties—dryness, sadness, desolation, and
faint-hearted fears—and would end in bewildering
discouragement, did not Faith and Hope, like
Joshua and Caleb, show us the fair fruits of this
much to be desired country, and thus animate us to
perseverance.
But He who brings light out of darkness, and
toses out of thorns, who helps us in all our tribu-
lations, and performs wonders in heaven and
earth, makes the happy souls whom He leads
through His will to His glory to find perfect con-
tent in the loss of all content, both corporal and
spiritual when once they recognize that it is the
will of God that they should go to Him by the
way of darkness, perplexity, crosses, and anguish.
In saying this I am putting into my own words
the thoughts of our Blessed Father as expressed in
the eleventh chapter of the sixth book of his
Treatise on the Love of God.
270 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Upon THE WILL OF GOD.
Meditating this morning on that passage of Holy
Scripture which tells us that the life of man is in
the good will of God,* I reflected that to live
according to the will of the flesh, that is, according
to the human will, is not really life, since the pru-
dence of the flesh is death; but that to live accord-
ing to the will of God is the true life of the soul,
since the grace attacited to that divine will im-
parts a life to our soul far higher than the life our
soul imparts to our body.
The divine will is our sanctification, and this
sanctification is the gate of eternal life; of that true
life in comparison with which the life which we lead
on earth is more truly a death. To live in God, in
whom is true life, is to live according to His will.
Our life, then, is to do His will. This made
St. Paul say that he lived, yet not he himself, but
that Jesus Christ lived in him,t because he had
only one will and one mind with Jesus Christ. I
was rejoiced to find that unconsciously my thoughts
on this subject had followed closely in the track of
our Blessed Father’s when he meditated on the
same passage. This I discovered on reading these
words in one of his letters:
“ This morning, being alone for a few moments,
I made an act of extraordinary resignation which
I cannot put on paper, but reserve until God per-
mits me to see you, when you shall know it by
word of mouth. Oh! how blessed are the souls
who live on the will of God alone. Ah! if even
to taste a little of that blessedness in a passing
*Psalm xxix. 6. Gal. ii. 20.
His Resignation to the Will of God 271
meditation is so sweet to the heart which accepts
that holy will with all the crosses it offers, what
must the happiness be of a soul all steeped in that
will? Oh! my God, what a blessed thing is it
not to bring all our affections into a humble and
absolute subjection to the divine love! This we
have said, this we have resolved to do, and our
hearts have taken the greatest glory of the love of
God for their sovereign law. Now the glory of
this holy love consists in its power of burning and
consuming all that is not itself, that all may be
resolved and changed into it. God exalts Him-
self upon our annihilation of ourselves and reigns
upon the throne of our voluntary servitude.’
His RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF GOD.
It happened that Blessed Francis fell ill at the
very time when his predecessor in the Bishopric of
Geneva was imploring the Holy See to appoint him
as his coadjutor.
The illness was so serious that the physicians
despaired of his life, and this our Blessed Father
was told. He received the announcement quite
calmly, and even joyfully, as though he saw the
heavens open and ready to receive him, and being
entirely resigned to the will of God both in life
and in death, said only:
‘‘ I belong to God, let Him do with me according
to His good pleasure.”
When someone in his presence said that he ought
to wish to live if not for the service of God at least
that he might do penance for his sins, he answered
thus: “‘It is certain that sooner or later we must
die, and whenever it may be, we shall always have
272 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
need of the great mercy of God: we may as well
fall into His pitiful hands to-day as to-morrow.
He is at all times the same, full of kindness, and
rich in mercy to all those who call upon Him: and
we are always evil, conceived in iniquity, and sub-
ject to sin even from our mother’s womb. He who
finishes his course earlier than others has less of an
account to render. I can see that there is a design
afoot to lay upon me a burden not less formidable to
me than death itself. Between the two I should
find it hard to choose. It is far better to submit
myself to the care of Providence: far better to
sleep upon the breast of Jesus Christ than anywhere
else. God loves us. He knows better than we do
what is good for us. Whether we live, or whether
we die, we are the Lord’s.* He has the keys of
life, and of death.t They who hope in Him are
never confounded.t Let us also go, and die with
Him.” And when someone said it was a pity he
should die in the flower of his age (he was only
thirty-five), he answered: ‘‘ Our Lord was still
younger when He died. The number of our days
is before Him, He can gather the fruits which be-
long to Him at any season. Do not let us waste
our time and thoughts over circumstances; let us
consider only His most holy will. Let that be
our guiding star; it will lead us to Jesus Christ
whether in the crib, or on Calvary. Whoever fol-
lows Him shall not walk in darkness but shall have
the light of eternal life, and shall be no more sub-
ject to death.’’
These were the words, this was the perfect
resignation, of our Blessed Father. Who can say
*Rom. xiv. 8. tApoc. i. 18. {Psalm xxiv. 3,
That we must always submit, £e. 273
we have not here the cause of the prolongation of
his days, even as a like resignation led to the pro-
longing of those of King Ezechias.
THAT WE MUST ALWAYS SUBMIT OURSELVES TO
Gop’s Hoty WILL.
In 1619, when our Saint was in Paris with the
Prince of Savoy, a gentleman of the court fell
dangerously ill. He sent for Blessed Francis,
who, when visiting him, remarked with some sur-
prise that, although he bore his physical sufferings
with great patience, he fretted grievously about
other troubles seemingly of very small moment.
He was distressed at the thought of dying away
from home, at being unable to give his family his
last blessing, at not having his accustomed
physician by his side, etc. Then he would begin
to worry about the details of his funeral, the inscrip-
tion on his tombstone, and so on. Nothing was
right in his surroundings; the sky of Paris, his
doctors and nurses, his servants, his bed, his
rooms, all were matters of com^laint. ‘‘ Strange
inconsistency !’’ exclaimed the holy Bishop. ‘‘ Here
is a brave soldier and a great statesman, fretted by
the merest trifles, and unhappy because he cannot
die in exactly the circumstances which he would
have chosen for himself.” Iam glad to be able to
add that in spite of all this the poor man made a
holy and a happy end.
But Blessed Francis afterwards said to me: “ It
is not enough to will what God wills, we must also
desire that all should be exactly, even in the minu-
test detail and particular, as God wills it to be. For
instance, in regard to sickness we should be willing
S
274 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
to be sick because it pleases God that we should be
so; and sick of that very sickness which God sends
us, not of one of a different character; and sick at
such time, and in such place, and surrounded by
such attendants, as it may please God to appoint.
In short, we must in all things take for our law the
most holy will of God.”
HIS SUBLIME THOUGHTS ON HoLY INDIFFERENCE.
Many of the saints, and especially St. Catherine
of Siena, St. Philip Neri, and St. Ignatius Loyola,
have spoken in the most beautiful and elevated
language of that holy indifference which, spring-
ing from the love of God, makes life or death and
all the circumstances of the one or the other
equally acceptable to the soul which realizes that
all is ordered by the will of God.
Let us hear what our Blessed Father says on this
subject in his Treatise on the Love of God.
‘“God’s will is the sovereign object of the in-
different soul; wheresoever she sees it she runs
after the odour of its perfumes, directing her course
ever thither where it most appears, without con-
sidering anything else. She is conducted by the
divine will, as by a beloved chain; which way
soever it goes she follows it: she would prize hell
with God’s will more than heaven without it; nay,
she would even prefer hell before heaven if she
perceived only a little more of God’s good-pleasure
in that than in this, so that if—to suppose what is
impossible—she should know that her damnation
would be more agreeable to God than her
His sublime thoughts, ée. 275
salvation, she would quit her salvation and run to
her damnation.’’*
This is, indeed, a bold and daring proposition,
but to convince you how tenaciously he clung to
it I would remind you of his words in the Con-
ferences;+ on the same subject: ‘‘ The saints
who are in heaven are so closely united to
the will of God that if there were even a little more
of His good-pleasure in hell than in paradise they
would quit paradise to go there.’ And again in
the same Conference: ‘‘ Whether the malady con-
quers the remedies or the remedies get the better
of the malady should be a matter of perfect
indifference. So much so that if sickness and health
were put before us and our Lord were to say to
us: ‘If thou choose health I will not deprive thee
of a single particle of my grace, if thou choose
sickness I shall not in any degree increase that
grace, but in the choice of sickness there is a
little more of my good-pleasure,’ the soul which
has wholly forsaken herself and abandoned herself
into the hands of our Lord will undoubtedly choose
sickness solely because it is more pleasing to God.
Nay, though this might mean a whole lifetime
spent on her couch in constant suffering, she would
not for any earthly consideration desire to be in
any other condition than this.”
NOTHING, SAVE SIN, HAPPENS TO US BUT BY
THE WILL OF GOD.
“Nothing happens to us,’’ Blessed Francis was
accustomed to say, ‘‘ whether of good or of evil,
sin alone excepted, but by the will of God.’’ Good,
because God is the source of all good. Every
"Bk ix., c. 5. Ẹ{Conf. ik
276 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
best gift and every perfect gift 1s from above, com-
ing down from the Father of lights.* Evil, for,
Shall there be evil in the city which the Lord hath
not done?+ The evil here spoken of is that of pain
or trouble, seeing that God cannot will the evil of
crime, which is sin, though he permits it, allowing
the human will to act according to the natural
liberty which He has given to it. Properly speak-
ing, Sin cannot be said to happen to us, because
what happens to us must come from without, and
sin, on the contrary, comes from within, proceeding
from our hearts, as holy Scripture expressly states,
telling us also that iniquity comes from our fat-
ness,t that is to say, from our ease and luxury.
Oh, what a happiness it would be for our souls
if we accustomed ourselves to receive all things
from the fatherly hand of Him who, in opening
it, fills all things living with blessing! What
unction should we not draw from this in our adver-
sities! What honey from the rock, what oil from
the stones! And with how much mcderation should
we not behave in prosperity, since God sends us
both the one and the other, that we may use both
to the praise and glory of His grace.
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
I must confess to you, my sisters, that I was
astonished to read in one of our Saint’s letters that
our Lord Jesus Christ did not possess the quality
of indifference in the sensitive part of His nature.
I will give the exact words in which this wonder-
ful fact is stated. ‘* This virtue of indifference,”
he says, “‘is so excellent that our old Adam, and
*St. James i. 17. +Amos iii. 6 tPsalm lxxii. 7.
Upon the same subject 277
the sensitive part of our human nature, so far as
its natural powers go, is not capable of it, no, not
even in our Lord, who, as a child of Adam,
although exempt from all sin, and from everything
pertaining to sin, yet in the sensitive part of his
nature and as regards his human faculties was in
no way indifferent, but desired not to die upon the
Cross. Indifference, and the exercise of it, is
entirely reserved for the spirit, for the supreme por-
tion of our nature, for faculties set on fire by grace,
and in fine for Himself personally, inasmuch as
He is divine and human, the New Man. How,
then, can we complain when as far as this lower
portion of our nature is concerned we find ourselves
unable to be indifferent to life, and to death, to
health, and to sickness, to honour and to ignominy,
to pleasure and to pain, to comfort and to discom-
fort, when, in a word, we feel in ourselves that
conflict going on which the vessel of election
experienced in such a manner as to make him
exclaim: Unhappy man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death ?*
The love of ourselves is so deeply rooted in our
nature that it is impossible wholly to rid ourselves
of it. Even grace does not do away with our self-
love, but only reduces it to the service of divine
charity.
By the love of self I mean a natural, just, and
legitimate love, so legitimate indeed as to be com-
manded by the law of God which bids us love our
neighbour as ourselves; that is to say, according
to God’s will, which is not only the one way in
which we can rightly love our neighbour, but also
the one way in which we are commanded to love
ourselves,
*Rom. vii. 24.
278 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Nevertheless, this love of ourselves, however just
and reasonable it may be, turns only too easily,
and too imperceptibly, into a self-love, which is
unlawful and forbidden, but into which even per-
sons the most earnest and the most spiritual are
at times surprised.
We often think we love someone, or something
in God, and for God, when it is really only in our-
selves, and for ourselves, that we do so. We think
sometimes that we have only an eye to the interests
of God, which is His glory, when it is really our
own glory which we are seeking in our work. This
is when we stop short voluntarily at the creature
to the prejudice of the Creator; as comes to pass in
all sin, whether mortal or venial. We must there-
fore watch and be constantly on our guard lest we
fall into this snare. From it we must snatch our
soul as we would a bird from the snare of the
fowler. We shall be safe if we remember that
every just and lawful love in us is always either in
actual touch with the love of God, or can be
brought into such touch, whilst self-love is never
in such touch, nor can ever be brought into it.
This is the test by which we can detect the false
coin that is mixed up with the true.
UPON ABANDONING OURSELVES TO GOD.
I cannot tell you, my sisters, how great a point
our Blessed Father made of self-abandonment, t.e.,
self-surrender into the hands of God. In one place
he speaks of it as: ‘“The cream of charity, the odour
of humility, the flower of patience, and the fruit
of perseverance. Great,’’ he says, ‘‘is,this virtue,
and worthy of being practised by the best beloved
Upon abandoning ourselves to God 279
children of God.’’* And again, ‘‘ Our Lord loves
with a most tender love those who are so happy
as to abandon themselves wholly to His fatherly
care, ‘letting themselves be governed by His divine
Providence without any idle speculations as to
whether the workings of this Providence will be
useful to them to their profit, or painful to their
loss, and this because they are well assured that
nothing can be sent, nothing permitted by
this paternal and most toving Heart, which will
not be a source of good and profit to them. All
that is required is that they should place all their
confidence in Him, and say from their heart, Into
Thy hands I commend my spirit, my soul, my
body, and ali that I have, to do with them as it
shall please Thee.’’+
You are inclined, my sisters, to say that we are
not all of us capable of such entire self-renuncia-
tion, that so.supreme an act ot self-abandonment
is beyond our strength. Hear then, too, what our
Blessed Father goes on to say. These are his
words in the same Conference: ‘* Never are we
reduced to such an extremity that we cannot pour
forth before the divine majesty the perfume of a
holy submission to His most holy will, and of a
continual promise never wilfully to offend Him.”
UPON INTERIOR DESOLATION.
As there are more thorns than roses in our earthly
life, and more dull days than sunny ones, so also
in our spiritual life our souls are more frequently
clouded by a sense of desolation, dryness, and
gloom, than irradiated by heavenly consolations
and brightness.
*+Conf,. 2.
280 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
Yet our Blessed Father says that ‘‘ those are
mistaken who think that, even in christians, whose
conscience does not accuse them of sins unconfessed,
but on the contrary bears good witness for them, a
heavy heart and sorrow-laden mind is a proof of
God’s displeasure.
Has God not said that He is with us in tribula-
tion, and is not His Cross the mark of the chosen ?
At the birth of Jesus, while the shepherds were
surrounded by the, light which shone from heaven
and their ears filled with the songs of angels, Mary
and Joseph were in the stable in the darkness of
night, the silence only broken by the weeping of
the Holy Child. Yet who would not rather be with
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in that shadowy gloom
than with the shepherds even in their ecstasy of
heavenly joy? St. Peter, indeed, amid the glories
of Thabor said: It is good to be here, let us make
here three tabernacles.* But Holy Scripture
adds: Not knowing what he said.
The faithful soul loves Jesus ‘covered with
wounds and disfigurements on Calvary, amid the
darkness, the: blood, the crosses, the nails, the
thorns, and the horror of death: loves Him, I say,
as dearly, as fervently as in His triumph, and cries
out from a full heart amid all this desolation :
Let:us make here three tabernacles, one for Jesus,
one for His holy Mother, and one for His beloved
disciple.”
UPON THE PRESENCE IN OUR SOULS OF THE
GRACE OF GOD.
There is, I think, no greater temptation than one
*Luke ix. 35.
Upon the presence in our souls, dc. 281
which assails many good people, namely, the desire
to know for certain whether or not they are in a
state of grace.
To a poor soul entangled in a perfect spider’s
web of doubt and mistrust, our Blessed Father
wrote the following consoling words: ‘‘ To try and
discover whether or not your heart is pleasing to
God is a thing you must not do, though you may
undoubtedlv try to make sure that His Heart is
pleasing to you. Now, if you meditate upon His
Heart it will be impossible but that it should be
well pleasing to you, so Sweet is it, so gentle, so
condescending, so loving towards those of His
poor creatures who do but acknowledge their
wretchedness: so gracious to the unhappy, so good
to the penitent. Ah! who would not love this
royal: Heart, which to us is as the heart both of a
father and of a mother?
As regards interior desolation there are some
souls who seem to think that no devotion is worthy
of the name which is not sensible and full of
emotion.
To one who complained to our Blessed Father
of having lost all relish for exercises of piety, he
wrote in the following words: ‘‘ The love of God
consists neither in consolations nor in tenderness—
otherwise our Lord would not have loved His
father when He was sorrowful unto death, nor when
He cried out, My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me?* That is to say, then, when He
performed the greatest act of love that it is possible
tO imagine.
The truth is, we are always hungering after con-
*Matt. xxvii. 46.
282 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
solation, for a little sugar to be added to our
spiritual food; in other words, we always want to
experience our feelings of love and tenderness, and
thereby to be cheered and comforted.”’
UPON OUR DESIRE TO SAVE OUR SOUL.
Faith teaches us, by means of the Holy Scrip-
tures, that God ardently desires that we should
be saved,* and that none should perish. His will
is our sanctification, that is to say, He wishes us
to be holy. Moreover, to prove that His desire
is neither barren nor unhelpful, He gives us in His
holy Church all the gracés necessary for our salva-
tion, so that if we are lost it will only be because
of our own wilful malice.
Unfortunately, however, though it may be that
all desire to save their souls, all are not willing
to accept the means offered them for so doing.
Hence the disorders which we see in the world
around us and the truth, that, while many are
called few are chosen. On this subject our
Blessed Father speaks as follows in his Theo-
timus:
‘“ We are,” he says, ‘fto will our salvation in
such sort as God wills it; now He wills it by way
of desire, and we also must incessantly desire it,
in conformity with His desire. Nor does He will
it only, but, in effect, gives us all necessary means
to attain to it. We then, in fulfilment of the desire
we have to be saved, must not only wish to be
saved, but, in effect, must accept all the graces
which He has provided for us, and offers us. With
regard to salvation itself, it is enough to say: I
*; Tim. i. 4.
Upon good natural inclinations 2883
desire to be saved. But, with regard to the means
of salvation, it is not enough to say: I desire
them. We must, with an absolute resolution, will
and embrace the graces which God presents to us;
for our will must correspond with God’s will. And,
inasmuch as He gives us the means of salvation,
we ought to avail ourselves of such means, just as
we ought to desire salvation in such sort as God
desires it for us, and because He desires it.’’*
UPON GOOD NATURAL INCLINATIONS.
Blessed Francis always impressed upon us the
necessity of making use for the glory of God of
any good inclinations natural to us. “If you
possess such,” he would say, “ remember that
they are gifts, of which you will have to render an
account. Take care, then, to employ them in the
service of Him who gave them to you. Engraft
upon this wild stock the shoots of eternal love
which God is ready to bestow upon you, if, by an
act of perfect self-renunciation, you prepare your-
self to receive them.”
There are people who are naturaliy inclined to
certain moral virtues, such as silence, sobriety,
modesty, chastity, humility, patience, and the like,
and who, however little they may cultivate these
virtues, make great progress in them. This was
the case with many of the great pagan philosophers
as we know, and it is quite true, that with all of
us, the bent and inclination of the mind towards
the acquisition of any kind of excellence, whether
moral or physical, is an immense assistance. Still,
The Love of God. Bk viii. 4.
284 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
we must bear in mind the fact that the acquiring of
every moral virtue and every physical power, nay,
of the whole world itself, is nothing, if, in gaining
them, we should lose our own soul. St. Paul tells
us this,* and for the same reason, our Blessed
Father warns us not to keep our talents wrapped
up in a napkin, not to hide their light under the
bushel of nature, but to trade with them according
to the intention of Him who is their author and
distributor. He reminds us that this divine Giver
who bestowed them on us in order thereby to in-
crease His exterior glory, promises us a reward
if we use them as He means us to do, and threatens
us with punishment if we are careless in the matter.
You ask me how we are to deal with these in-
clinations and manage these talents or virtues?
Well, you have the answer to that question in the
words of our Blessed Father which I quoted:
“ Engraft on the wild stock of natural inclination
shoots of divine charity.”
How TO SPEAK OF GOD.
St. Francis loved those words of St. Peter: If
any man speak, let him speak as the words of God.
If any man minister, let him do it as of the power
which God administreth,t and of St. Paul: All
things whatsoever you do, whether in word or in
work, do them in the name (that is to say, to the
honour and glory) of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That we may carry out this excellent precept in
our actions, our Blessed Father gives us some
remarkable teaching. In one of his letters he
*1 Cor, xi. n
+i St. Peter iv. 11. Col. iii. 17.
How to speak of God 285
says: ‘‘ We must never speak of God or of things
relating to His worship, that is, of religion, care-
lessly, and in the way of ordinary conversation,
but always with great respect, esteem, and devo-
tion.”
This advice applies to those who speak of God
and of religious matters as they would of any ordi-
nary topics of conversation, without taking into
account the circumstances of time, place, or per-
sons. St. Jerome complained of this abuse, saying
that whilst there are masters and experts in every
art and science, only on matters of theology and
Holy Scripture, the foundations of all arts and
sciences, can few be found to speak well. Yet ques-
tions relating to them are discussed most flippantly
at table, and in public places; the hare-brained
youth, the uneducated labourer, and the dotard,
give their opinions freely on the highest mysteries
of the Faith.
Again, Blessed Francis says: “f Always speak
of God as of God, that is to say, reverently
and devoutly, not in a self-sufficient, preaching
spirit, but with gentleness, charity, and
humility.” *
In the same book he gives his advice to Philo-
thea in the following words: ‘“‘ Never, then, speak
of God or of religion for form’s sake, or to make
conversation, but always with attention and devo-
tion. I tell you this, that you may not be guilty
of an extraordinary sort of vanity, which is observ-
able in many who profess to be devout. These
people, on all possible occasions, throw in expres-
sions of piety and fervour without the least thought
Part iii., cheapie.
286 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of what they are saying, and, having uttered these
phrases, imagine that they themselves are such, as
their words would indicate, which is not at all the
case.
UPON ECCENTRICITIES IN DEVOTION.
Blessed Francis had a great dislike of any kind
of affectation or singularity practised by devout
persons, whether in Religious houses or in the
world. He went so far as to say that it rendered
their piety not merely offensive, but ridiculous.
He wished every one to conform as far as pos-
sible to the way of life proper to his or her calling,
without affecting any peculiarity. He gave as his
authority for this desire the example of our Lord,
who, in the days of His flesh, condescended to
make Himself like to His brethren in all things
excepting sin.
The holy Bishop inculcated this lesson upon his
penitents, not only by word, but much more by his
example. Never during the whole fourteen years
which, happily for me, I spent under his direction
studying most closely all his actions, his very ges-
tures, his words, and his teaching; never, I say,
did I observe in him the faintest shadow of singu-
larity.
I must confess to having, in order to find out
exactly what he was, practised a ruse, which some
might think inexcusable or impertinent. Every
year he paid me a week’s visit, and before he came
I took care to have some holes pierced in the doors
or boarding of his rooms, that I might closely
observe his behaviour when quite alone. Well, I
can truly say that whatever he did, whether he
prayed, read, meditated, or wrote, in his lying
Upon eccentricities in devotion 287
down and in his rising up, at all times and in all
circumstances, he was the same—calm, unaffected,
simple—his outward demeanour corresponding
with the interior beauty of his soul. Francis quite
alone was the very same as Francis in company.
I think, myself, that this was the result of his con-
tinual attention to the presence of God, a practice
which he recommended so strongly to all who were
under his direction.
When he prayed, it was as though he saw the
angels and the saints gathered round him. He
remained for hours calm, motionless as a statue,
and changeless in expression.
Never, even when alone, did he for the sake of
greater comfort sit or stand or assume attitudes
other than those he permitted himself when in
public. He never so much as crossed his legs, or
rested his head on his hand. The unvarying but
easy gravity of his demeanour naturally inspired
an unfailing love and respect.
He said that our exterior deportment should be
like water which, the better it is, the more ts it taste-
less.
I was much pleased on hearing a very famous
and devout person,! whom I met in Paris, say this
to me about our Saint: That nothing brought so
vividly to his mind what the conversation of our
Lord Jesus Christ must have been among men, as
the presence and angelic deportment of the holy
Bishop, of whom one might truly say that he was
not only clothed with, but absolutely full of, Jesus
Christ. Nor will this appear strange to us if we
remember that the just soul, that is to say, the soul
1St. Vincent de Paul.
288 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
which is in a state of grace, is said to be conformed
to the image of the Son of God, and is called a
participator of the divine nature.
Upon CONFRATERNITIES.
He advised devout people to give in their names
boldly, and without much consultation, to the con-
fraternities which they happened to meet with, so
as to become by this means participators of grace
with all those who fear God and live according to
His law. He pitied the scruples of those good
souls who fear to enrol themselves, lest, as they
ignorantly imagine, they should sin by not fulfilling
certain duties laid down in the rules given for the
guidance and discipline of these confraternities, but
which are rather recommended than commanded.
“ For,” he said, “‘ if the rules of Religious Orders
are not in themselves binding under pain of either
mortal or venial sin, how much less so are the
statutes of confraternities ?
The following out of the recommendations given
to their members to do certain things, to recite cer-
tain prayers, to take part in certain meetings or pro-
cessions, is a matter of counsel, and not of precept.
To those who perform such pious actions, Indul-
gences are granted, which those who do not
practise them fail to gain; but such failure,even if
wilful, is not a sin. There is much to gain, and
nothing to lose.”
On this subject he speaks thus to Philothea:
“Enter readily into the confraternities of the
place in which you are living, and specially into
those whose exercises are the most fruitful and
edifying. In doing this, you will be practising a
Upon Confraternitres 289
kind of obedience which is very pleasing to God,
and the more so because although the joining con-
fraternities is not commanded, yet it is recom-
mended by the Church, who, to show that she
desires Catholics to enrol themselves therein, grants
Indulgences and other privileges to their members.
Then, too, it is always a charitable thing to concur
and co-operate with others in their good works.
And although it may be that we should make quite
as good exercises by ourselves as we do in com-
mon with our fellow-members, yet we promote the
glory of God better by uniting ourselves with our
brethren and neighbours, and sharing our good
deeds with them.’’*
UPON INTERCOURSE WITH THE WORLD.
There are some good people whose zeal not being
sufficiently tempered with knowledge, as soon as
they desire to give themselves up to a devout life,
fly from society and from intercourse with others as
owls shun the company of birds that fly by day.
Their morose and unsociable conduct causes a dis-
like to be taken to devotion instead of rendering it
sweet and attractive toall. Our Blessed Father was
altogether opposed to such moroseness, wishing His
devout children to be by their example a light to the
world, and the salt of the earth, so as to impart a
flavour to piety which might tempt the appetite of
those who would otherwise surely turn from it with
disgust. Toa good soul who asked him whether
christians who wished to live with some sort of per-
fection should see company and mix in society, he
answers thus: ‘‘ Perfection, my dear lady, does not
*Part ii., chap. 15.
T
290 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
lie in avoiding our fellow-men, but it does lie in not
over-relishing social pleasures and in not taking un-
due delight in them. There is danger for us in all
that we see ina sinful world, for we run the risk of
fixing our affections upon things worldly; at the
same time to those who are steadfast and resolute,
the mere sight of the things of this world will do no
harm. In a word, the perfection of charity is the
perfection of life, for the life of our soul is charity.
The early christians, who were in the world in their
body though not in their heart, undoubtedly were
very perfect.’’*
As regards the world’s opinion of us, and the esti-
mation in which we are held by others, it is not well
to be too sensitive. At the same time, to be alto-
gether indifferent about our reputation is blame-
worthy. Our Blessed Prelate teaches his Philothea
exactly what we have to do:
“If,” he says, “‘the world despises us, let us
rejoice, for it is right—we see for ourselves that we
are very contemptible. If it esteems us, let us
despise its esteem and its judgment, for it is blind.
Trouble yourself very little about what the world
thinks; do not ask or even care to know. Despise
equally its appreciation and its contempt, and let it
say what it will, good or evil. I do not approve of
doing what is not right, that people may have a bad
opinion of us. Transgressing is always trans-
gressing, and weare thereby making our neighbour
transgress likewise. On the contrary, I desire that,
keeping our eyes always fixed upon our Lord, we do
what we have to do without regarding what the
world thinks of us, or its behaviour towards us. We
*Cf. The Devout Life. Part iv., c. 7.
Upon intercourse with the world 291
need not endeavour to give others a good opinion
of ourselves, yet neither have we to try to give a
bad one, and especially must we be careful not to
do wrong with this intent.
But we can never stand quite well with the world;
it is far too exacting. If out of compliance we yield
to it, and play and dance with it, it will be scandal-
ized; and if we do not, it will accuse us of hypocrisy
and gloom ; if we are well-dressed it will impute to us
some bad motive; and if we are ill-dressed it will
call us mean; it will style our gaiety dissoluteness
and our mortification gloom. It will exaggerate
our failings and publish our faults; and if it cannot
find fault with our actions it will attack our motives.
Whatever we do the world will find fault. If we
spend a long time at confession it will ask what we
can have to say; if we take but a short time, it
will say that we do not tell everything. If one little
cross word escape us it will pronounce our temper
unbearable; it will denounce our prudence as
avarice, our gentleness as folly. Spiders invari-
ably spoil the bees’ labour. Therefore, do not mind
what opinion the world has of you, good or bad;
do not distress yourself about it, whichever it be.
To say that we are not what the world thinks, when
it speaks well of us, is wise, for the world, like a
quack doctor, always exaggerates.”
You question me, regarding the contempt which
we should feel for the world and the world’s opinion
of us; in other words you want to know exactly what
St. Paul means when he says that, being crucified
to the world and the world to us, we should glory
only in the Cross of our Saviour Jesus Christ.*
* Galat. vi. 14.
292 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
This seems to you a paradox; light evolved from
darkness, and glory from shame. Let me remind
you that the christian religion is full of such para-
doxes, and that we belong to an all-powerful God,
who has given life to us by His death; who has
healed us by His wounds, and who makes us rich
by His poverty. I cannot, however, explain the
difficulty to you better than by quoting the words
of our Blessed Father in one of his letters. He
says: ‘* In this alone lies our glory, that our divine
Saviour died for us, the Master for His slaves, the
just for the unjust.”
AGAINST OVER-EAGERNESS.
Blessed Francis advised his penitents to avoid
above all things, excessive eagerness, which, in his
view, is the mortal foe of true devotion. He says:
“It is far better to do a few things well than to
undertake many good works and leave them half
done.”’
This was the mistake of the man in the Gospel
who began to build and was not able to finish be-
cause he had not counted the cost beforehand. There
are some who think they are never doing well unless
they are doing much. They are like the Pharisees
who considered the perfection of prayer to consist
inits length. Our Lord reproves them for this and
much more for devouring widows’ houses with their
long prayers. In one of his Conferences the
Saint speaks thus: “It is not by the multiplicity
of things we do that we acquire perfection, but by
the perfection and purity of intention with which
we do them.”
And this is what he says on the subject in his
Against over-eagerness 293
Theotimus: ‘‘ To do few actions but with great
purity of intention and with a firm will to please
God, is to do excellently. Such greatly sanctify us.
Some men eat much, and yet are ever lean, thin, and
delicate, because their digestive power is not good;
there are others who eat little, and yet are always in
excellent health and vigorous, because their stomach
is good. Even so, there are some souls that do
many good works and yet increase but little in
charity, because they do those good works either
coldly and negligently, or have undertaken them
rather from natural instinct and inclination than
because God so willed and with heaven-given fer-
vour. On the contrary, others there are who get
through little work, but do it with so holy a will
and inclination, that they make a wonderful
advancement in charity; they have little talent, but
they husband it so faithfully that the Lord largely
rewards them for it.’’*
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
Our Blessed Father always insisted on the neces-
sity of discretion as well as charity in our devotion,
and warned us against that want of self-restraint and
calmness, which he called eagerness. This, he
said, is, indeed, the remora of true devotion, and
its worst enemy, the more so because it decks itself
in the livery of devotion, in order more easily to
entrap the unwary and to make them mistake zeal
without knowledge for genuine fervour.
He was very fond of that saying of an ancient
Emperor: ‘‘ Make haste slowly,” and of another:
‘“ Soon enough, if well enough.’’ He would rather
have a little done thoroughly well, than a great deal
"Lowe of Ged. B. mii., c. 7.
294 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
undertaken with over-eagerness. One of his
favourite maxims was “‘ Little and good.” In order
to persuade us that he was right, he used to warn
us against thinking that perfection depends on the
number of our good works, exterior or interior.
When asked what then became of that insatiable
love of which the masters of the spiritual life speak,
that love which never thinks that it has reached the
goal, but is always pressing on farther and farther,
spanning the whole extent of heaven with giant
strides, he answered: ‘‘ The tree of that love
must grow at the roots, rather than by the
branches.’’ He explained his meaning thus: To
grow by the branches is to wish to perform a great
number of good works, of which many are imper-
fect, others superfluous like the useless leaves which
overload the vine, and have to be nipped off before
the grapes can grow to any proper size. On the
other hand we grow at the roots when we do only a
few good works, but those few most perfectly, that
is to say, with a great love of God, in which all the
perfection of the christian consists. It is to this
that the Apostle exhorts us when he bids us be
rooted and grounded in charity if we would com-
prehend the surpassing charity of the knowledge of
Jesus Christ. True devotion, he used to say, should
be gentle, tranquil, and discreet, whereas eagerness
is indiscreet, tempestuous, and turbulent.
Especially he found fault with the eagerness
which attempts to do several things at once. He
said it was like trying to thread more than one
needle at a time. One of his favourite mottos
was: ‘‘ Sufficient to the day is the labour thereof.”
When he was reproached, as he sometimes was,
Upon liberty of Spirit 295
with bestowing such earnest and undivided atten-
tion on the most trivial concerns of the people who
came to him for sympathy and advice, he answered :
‘‘ These troubles appear great to them, and, there-
fore, they must be consoled, as if they really were
so. God knows, too, that I do not want any great
employment. [Itis perfectly indifferent to me what
my occupation is so long as it is a serving of Him.
To do these small works is all that is, at the time
being, asked of me. Is not doing the will of Goda
work great enough for anyone? We turn little
actions into great ones when we perform them with
a supreme desire to please God, who measures our
Services, not by the excellence of the work we do,
but by the love which accompanies it, and that love
by its purity, and that purity by the singleness of
its intention.”
Upon LIBERTY OF SPIRIT.
He was a great enemy to every sort of spiritual
restriction and constraint, and was fond of quoting
the words of St. Paul: Where the spirit of God
is, there is liberty.* And again: You are
redeemed with a great price, do not make your-
selves slaves again.t| He had advised a lady of
rank to work with her own hands, in order to avoid
sloth, and, as she was well to do, he suggested to her
to devote her manual labour to the adornment of
altars or to the service of the poor, following the
advice of the Apostle, who counsels us to labour
with our hands to provide for the wants of the
needy. This lady, who always followed his
suggestions to the very letter as if they were
"IT." Ger. iti. 17. TCor. wii. 28
296 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
commands, having done some little piece of
work for herself, felt-a scruple about the matter, as
though she had failed in the exact obedience which
she had resolved to yield, not only to the commands
of the holy Prelate, but even to his opinions. She
therefore, asked him if she ought to give in alms
exactly what a piece of work she had done for herself
was worth. Moreover, having been advised to fast
on Fridays she wished, she said, in order to gain
more merit to make a vow that she would always
practise this mortification.
Here is his reply: ‘‘ I approve of your Friday
fasts, but not that you should make any vow to keep
them, nor that you should tie yourself down tightly
in such matters. Still more do I approve of your
working with your hands, spinning and so forth, at
times when nothing greater or more important
claims your attention, and that what you make
should be destined either for the altar or for the
poor. I should not, however, like you to keep to
this so strictly, that if it should happen that you do
something for yourself or for your family you
should feel obliged to give the poor the value of
your work. For, holy liberty and freedom must
reign, and we must have no other law than love,
which, when it bids us to do some kind of work for
our own family or friends, must not be looked upon
as if it had led us todo wrong. Still less does it
require us to make amends, as you wished to do.
seeing that whatever it invites us to take in hand,
whether for the rich or for the poor, is equally pleas-
ing to our Lord.’ What do you think of this
doctrine, you who go by rule and measure in
valuing an act of virtue? Is liberality displayed
Upon nature and grace 297
towards the rich, in your opinion, worth as much as
alms given to the poor? See now, this holy Bishop
follows a very different rule, and measuring the one
action and the other by the golden standard of
charity, esteems them as equal, provided both be
done with equal charity.
UPON NATURE AND GRACE.
In certain minds there seems always to lurk some
remains of Pelagianism, a hydra from which though
bruised and crushed by the Church—the pillar and
bulwark of the Truth—new heads are ever spring-
ing forth.
Many, as I am willing to believe, from lack of
consideration, ascribe too much to nature, and tou
little to grace, making too great capital of the matter
of moral virtues, and too little of the manner in
which they are practised. These people forget that
in our works God does not regard how much we do,
but with how much love we do it, non quantum,
sed ex quanto, in the language of the schools.
On this subject our Blessed Father gives the fol-
lowing excellent advice to a pious person who,
because she had to devote the greater part of her
time to household affairs and to mix a good deal in
society was discouraged, and thought it almost
impossible for her to lead a devout life.
“ Do not,” he says, “* look at all at the substance
of the things which you do, but rather, poor though
they be, at the honour by which they are ennobled,
that of being willed by God, ordered by His Provi-
dence, and arranged by His wisdom, in a word, that
of being pleasing to God. And if they please Him,
whom can they reasonably offend? Strive, my
298 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
dearest daughter, to become every day more pure in
heart.
This purity of heart consists in setting on all
things their true value, and in weighing them in the
balance of the sanctuary, which balance is only
another name for the will of God.” In the same
way in his Theotimus he teaches that acts of the
lesser virtues are often more pleasing to God, and
consequently more meritorious, because done with
great love, than the most splendid virtues when
practised with less of heavenly charity. Charity is
the pure gold which makes us rich in immortal
wealth.
UPON EXAGGERATED INTROSPECTION.,
Blessed Francis was not at all fond of too much
self-introspection, or of the habit of turning an un-
important matter over and over a hundred times in
the mind. He called this pernicious hair-splitting ;
or, with the Psalmist: ‘‘ Spinning spiders’ webs.’’*
People given to it he used to say are like the silk-
worm, which imprisons and entangles itself in its
own cocoon. In his twelfth Conference he speaks
further on this subject.
‘“ The soul,” he says, “f which is wholly bent on
pleasing its divine Lover, has neither desire nor
leisure to fall back upon itself. It presses on con-
tinually (or should do so) along the one straight
patk which has that love for its aim, not allowing
itselt to waste its powers in continual self-inspec-
tion for the purpose of seeing what it is doing or if
itis satisfied. Alas! our own satisfactions and con-
solations do not satisfy God, they only feed that
*Cf. Ps. Whexxik. to,
Upon interior reformation 299
miserable love and care of ourselves which is quite
apart from God and the thought of Him.”’
A great deal of time is wasted in these useless con-
siderations which would be far better employed in
doing good works.
By over considering whether we do right, we may
actually do wrong.
St. Anthony was once asked how we might know
if we prayed properly. ‘‘ By not knowing itat all,”
he answered. He certainly prays well who is so
taken up with God that he does not know he is
praying. The traveller who is always counting his
steps will not make much headway.
UPON INTERIOR REFORMATION.
Our Blessed Father used to say that, generally
speaking, grace worked as nature, and not as art,
does. Art only reproduces what appears outwardly
as in painting and sculpture, but nature begins her
work from within, so that in a living creature the
internal organs are formed before the skin, whence
the saying that the heart is the first living part of
man.
When, therefore, he wished to lead souls on from
a worldly to a devout life, he did not at first suggest
changes in the exterior, in the dressing of the hair,
in the fashion of garments, and so on. No, he
spoke only to the heart, and of the heart, knowing
that when once that stronghold is gained, nothing
else can resist.
“ When a house is on fire, said he, see how all
the furniture is thrown out of the window! So is
it when the heart is possessed by true love of God,
all that is not of God seems then to it of no moment
300 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
at all. If a man, says the Canticle of Canticles
give all his riches for love he will think that he has
done nothing.’’*
I will give you a trifling illustration of this teach-
ing which may be useful to you. A lady of high
rank, having placed herself under the direction of
the holy Prelate, became more and more assiduous
in attending the services of the Church, spending
much time in prayer and meditation, and, in what
leisure was left her from her household cares, visit-
ing the sick and poor. Her friends and acquaint-
ances, however, observed with surprise that she
made no change at all in external matters, that her
dress was as rich as ever, and that she laid aside
none of her magnificent ornaments.
This so scandalized them that they began to mur-
mur openly, not only against her, but also against
her director. They even went so far as to accuse
her of hypocrisy, forgetting that a hypocrite always
tries to appear better in the eyes of others than he
really is, whereas she, in spite of interior amend-
ment, remained quite unchanged in her exterior.
The truth was that she did not in the least care
for her ornaments, but as it was her husband’s will
that she should dress as before, she followed the
example of Esther, who, though she detested all
vain pomp and show, to please Assuerus, decked
herself out with magnificence.
On one occasion some busybody told our Blessed
Father that this lady, devout though she was, had
not even given up wearing ear-rings, and expressed
great surprise that he who was so good a confessor
had not advised her to have done with the like
* Cant viii. 7.
His vision of the Most Holy Trinity 301
vanities. To allthis Francis replied with his accus-
tomed gentleness, and with a touch of humour: “I
assure you, I do not know that she has got ears,
much less ear-rings in them. She always comes to
confession with her head so completely enveloped
ina great hood or scarf that I cannot see so much as
its shape. Then, too, let us remember that the
saintly Rebecca of old, who was quite as virtuous as
this lady, lost nothing of her sanctity by wearing
the ear-rings which Eleazer presented to her as the
gift of his master Isaac!”
Thus did our Blessed Father deal with matters
which are a stumbling-block to the weak and foolish,
showing how true it is that all things work together
for good to those who are good, and that to the pure
all things are pure.
HIS VISION OF THE Most Hoty TRINITY.
All christians ought to be not only devout but
absolutely devoted to the most Blessed Trinity. It
is the most august and fundamental of all our mys-
teries; it is that to which we are consecrated by our
entrance into the holy Church, for we are baptized
in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost.
But you, my sisters, ought in an especial manner
to be devoted to this great and ineffable mystery,
remembering the wonderful vision which our
Blessed Father, your founder, had on the day of his
episcopal consecration. In that sublime vision
Almighty God showed him most clearly and intel-
ligibly that the three adorable Persons of the most
Holy Trinity were operating in his soul, producing
there special graces which were to aid him in his
302 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
pastora! office, at the very moment that the three
Bishops who were consecrating him, blessed him,
and performed all the holy ceremonies which ren-
der this action so great and so solemn. Thence-
forth he always regarded himself as consecrated to
the ever-Blessed Trinity and as a vessel of honour
and sanctification.
Then, too, in the year 1610, he both founded and
opened your Institute on the day dedicated by the
Church to the memory and adoration of that incom-
prehensible mystery. Trinity Sunday that year
happening to fall on the Feast of St. Claude, he gave
you that saint as your special intercessor with the
most Holy Trinity.
Again, you Congregation began with three mem-
bers only, and this of set purpose, in order to hon-
our the Blessed Trinity as well as to accomplish
what is written in the Gospel, that when two or
three are gathered together in the name, that is to
say, for the glory of God, He will be in the midst
of them, and will animate and govern them by His
spirit; the spirit of love, unity, and concord, which
makes us keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace, and renders us one through love, as the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one only,
in nature, essence, and substance. It is this peace
of God, passing all understanding, which has up to
the present time kept all the convents of your Order
in unity. Woe to him who shall break down this
defence and rampart! May the ever-Blessed
Trinity avert this misery, and both regard and pre-
serve you always, as adopted daughters of the
Father, adopted sisters of the Son, and spouses of
the Holy Ghost! Amen.
His devotion to our Blessed Lady 308
HIS DEVOTION TO OUR BLESSED LADY.
Astrologers, as you know, make a great point of
observing what star is rising on the horizon at the
moment of a person’s birth. They call it the ascen-
dant, and it forms, as it were, the apex of their horo-
scope. Well, thisisanidle fancy, but we may draw
from it a useful suggestion. It would be good for
us to notice what star was in the ascendant in the
heavens,, that is to say, what blessed Saint’s feast
day illumined the heaven of the Church militant at
the moment of our birth. I cannot tell you how
much this knowledge has helped many a soul.
Ah! how bright and glorious an ascendant our
Blessed Father had! seeing that he was born under
the very sign and protection of the Mother of God,
on one of the days in the Octave of her Assumption,
August 21st, 1567.
No wonder that he always had a special] devotion
to her and showed it in every possible way ; among
others, in giving her name to many of the confra-
ternities and congregations established by him in
the Church. No wonder either that he had so great
a love of purity, and that under the protection, and
with the assistance of the Queen of Virgins, he
should have consecrated himself to God in holy
virginity and continence.
You know that it was on the Feast of the Immacu-
late Conception that he received episcopal consecra-
tion, and at the same time that inward unction which
we learn so much of from the history of his life.
He also dedicated his Theotimus* to the Queen
*The Treatise on the Love of God.
304 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of Sovereign Charity, and preached continually
and with extraordinary sweetness and fervour upon
the perfections and greatness of that divine
Mother.
Finally, my dear sisters, there was nothing that
he recommended so much to his spiritual children
as this devotion to the Blessed Virgin. You,
indeed, more than all others, ought to bear witness
to this, seeing that he made you daughters of holy
Mary, under the title of the Visitation, marked
thereby to distinguish you from so many other con-
gregations consecrated to the honour and service of
God under the title of Our Lady.
His devotion to our Blessed Lady was, indeed,
as might have been expected from one so single-
minded and sincere as he, eminently practical.
From his earliest youth he sought her protection and
aid in all difficulties and temptations. When he
was pursuing his studies while at college in Paris,
the evil spirit was permitted by God to insinuate
into his mind the terrible idea that he was one of
the number of the damned. This delusion took
such possession of his soul that he lost his appetite,
was unable to sleep, and day by day grew more and
more wasted and languid. His tutor and director
noticing how his health was affected and how pale,
listless, and joyless he had become, often questioned
him as to the cause of his dejection and evident
suffering, but his tormentor who had filled his mind
with this delusion, being what is called a dumb
devil, the poor youth could give no explanation.
For one whole month he suffered this mental tor-
ture, this agony of soul. He had lost all the sweet-
ness of divine love, but not, happily, his fidelity to
His devotion to our Blessed Lady 305
it. He looked back with bitter tears to the happy
time when he was, as it were, inebriated with that
sweetness, nor did any ray of hope illumine the
darkness of that night of despair.
At last, led by a divine inspiration, he entered a
church to pray that this agony might pass.
On his knees before a statue of the Blessed Vir-
gin he implored the assistance of the Mother of
Mercy with tears and sighs, and the most fervent
devotion.
He ended by reciting the Memorare, that devout
prayer attributed to St. Augustine or St. Bernard,
and which was such a favourite with our Blessed
Father and taught by him to all his penitents.
I may here mention that it was from his lips
that I first learnt that prayer, that I wrote it down
in the beginning of my breviary, and have made
constant use of it in all my necessities.
But, to return to my story. No sooner had he
finished this appeal to the Mother of Mercy than he
began to experience the power of her intercession.
He seemed to hear the voice of God within him say-
ing: “ I am thy salvation: Oh! man of little faith,
wherefore dost thou doubt? Thou art mine and I
will save thee; have confidence; I am He who has
overcome the world.”
Then, ina moment, the devil departed from him;
the delusions with which that wicked one had filled
his mind vanished; joy and consolation took their
place; where darkness had reigned light assumed
the empire, and Francis felt he could never suffi-
ciently thank God for this deliverance.
Can you wonder that after such a battle and such
a victory won through the intercession of the Mother
U
306 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of God he always advised those who were under-
going temptation to have recourse to her powerful
aid? She is indeed terrible—to our foes—as an
army in battle array, and a tower of strength
against the face of our enemies; and what marvel
seeing that it is she who has crushed the serpent’s
head ?
His DEVOTION TO THE HOLY WINDING SHEET OF
TURIN.
With regard to our Blessed Father’s explanation
of his special devotion to the Holy Winding Sheet,
as connected with circumstances preceding his birth,
I may here say a few words.
He was born, as you know, on the 21st of August,
1567. His mother was then very young, not quite
fifteen, and frail and delicate in health. It hap-
pened that at that very time the Holy Winding
Sheet, then in the Chapel of Chambery, was, by
command of His Highness of Savoy, and at the
request of the Princess Anne d’Este, wife, by her
second marriage, of James of Savoy, Duke of
Nemours and Prince of Geneva, brought to Annecy.
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, and Louis, Cardinal
of Guise, were at the time at Annecy, where the
sacred relic was displayed with great solemnity and
exposed to the veneration of the multitudes who
flocked to the place from all parts.
Among these crowds came the father and mother
of Blessed Francis, and we may well believe that
God made use of this holy relic to imprint upon both
the mother and the unborn child some special
influence of grace.
There is another winding sheet at Besancon (for
Eis Devotion to the Holy Winding, dc. 307
our Lord was buried in two, Holy Scripture itself
suggesting this by the use of the word linteamina,*
linen cloths), that city being the metropolis of the
ecclesiastical province, in which the Bishopric of
Belley is situated.
One day when our Blessed Father was passing
by the place the authorities had the relic exposed in
his honour, and begged him to preach upon the sub-
ject. He did so, with tears of emotion and such a
torrent of vehement eloquence, as went straight to
the hearts of all who listened to him.
In his own diocese he took care to have the feast
of the Holy Winding Sheet kept in all the churches.
He generally himself preached on that day, and
always with much feeling and devotion.
He had a most special devotion to the Holy
Winding Sheet, as it is to be seen at Turin. He
had it copied or represented in all sorts of different
ways, or, I should rather say, by all sorts of different
arts; in embroidery, in oil painting, in copper-
plate, in coloured engraving, in miniature, in demi-
relief, in etching. He had it in his chamber, his
chapel, his oratory, his study, his refectory; in a
word, everywhere.
On one occasion I asked him the reason of this.
He answered: “‘ It is the great treasure of the House
of Savoy, the defence of the country; it is our great
relic; more than this, it is the miraculous picture of
the sufferings of Jesus Christ, traced with His own
blood. And then, too, I have a special reason for
my devotion to this holy relic, seeing that before I
was born my mother dedicated me to our Lord,
while contemplating this sacred standard of salva-
tion.
*Luke xxiv. 12.
308 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
It is said that he who carries the standard into
battle, rather than surrender it to the enemy, should
wrap its folds round his body and glory in so dying.
Ah! What a happiness it would be if we could thus
fold round about us the Holy Winding Sheet,
buried with Jesus Christ for love of Him, in whom
we are buried by baptism.”’
Uron MERIT.
Every good work can, as you know, have four
qualities: it can be meritorious, satisfactory, con-
solatory, or impetratory.
In order to have the two first qualities it must be
performed when we are in a state of grace; that is to
say, through the motive of charity, or, at least, in
charity.
But the two last it can have, although imperfectly,
without charity; for how many sinners there are
who feel consolation in doing works which are
morally good, and how many who in praying impe-
trate graces and favours from the mercy of God.
Between the two first qualities of good works
there is this difference, that the first abides with and
belongs wholly and entirely to the person who per-
forms the work, and cannot be communicated; that
power of communication being reserved solely for
the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, which do not
stop short, as it were, and end in Him, but can be,
and, in fact, are, communicated to us. Neither the
saints in heaven nor those on earth have power to
communicate to us one tittle of their merits; not
the former, because in glory they are rewarded far
beyond their deserving; not the latter, because they
have not yet reached the goal, and whatever sanc-
Upon Good Will, &e. 309
tity they may possess, they may, through sin, fall
away from it, and all have need of the grace and
mercy of God to keep them from so falling.
The second quality, however, is communicable,
because we can share in the necessities of one
another, and can make satisfaction one for another ;
Spiritual riches being no less communicable than
temporal ones, and the abundance of some being
able to relieve the starvation of others. Hear what
our Blessed Father says on this subject in his
eighteenth Conference: ‘‘ We must never think that
by going to Holy Communion for others, or by
praying for them, we lose anything. We need not
fear that by offering to God this communion or
prayer in satisfaction for the sins of others we shall
not make spiritual profit for ourselves. The merit
of the communion and of the prayer will remain
with us, for we cannot merit grace for one another ;
itis our Lord alone who can do that. We can beg
for graces for others, but we can never merit
them.”
Uron Goop WILL AND Goop DESIRES.
Good will being of so great importance, you ask
me of what use it is, if it does not manifest itself
by its works.
And St. Gregory tells us that where there are no
works there can be no love at all, or at least none
that is sincere. Our Blessed Father will give the
best possible answer to your question. These are
his words:
‘The angel who proclaimed the birth of our
infant Saviour sang glory to God, announcing that
he published joy, peace, and happiness to men of
310 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
good will. This was done in order that no one
might be ignorant that to receive this Child all that
is needed is to be of good will, even though as yet
cne may have effected nothing of good, for Christ
comes to bless all good wills, and, little by little,
He will render them fruitful and of good effect, pro-
vided we allow Him to govern them.
With regard to good desires, it is, indeed, mar-
vellous that they should so often come to nothing,
and that such magnificent blossoms should produce
so little fruit.
He gives, however, a reason for this, which
pleases me very much.
God knows, he says, why He permits so many
good desires to require such length of time and such
severe effort to bring them to action, nay, more
than this, why sometimes they are never actuated
at all.
Yet if there were no other profit from them than
that resulting from the mortification of a soul which
loves God, that would be much.
In fact, we must not desire evil things at all; good
things we must desire only in moderation; but
desire supremely, and in a limitless degree, that one
only divine Good, God Himself.
AGAINST THE MAKING OF RASH VOWS.
A certain person of my acquaintance! having
learnt on good authority that Blessed Francis had
in his early youth made a vow to say his rosary
1Undoubtedly M. Camus himself.
Note.—It is considered by critics that M. Camus puts
much of his own into the mouth of St. Francis in this
section. —[ Ed. ]
Against the making of rash vows 311
every day, wished to imitate him in this work of
piety, and yet did not like to make the vow without
first consulting him.
He received the answer: ‘‘ Beware of doing so.”
My friend replying: ‘‘ Why do you refuse to others
the advice which you took for yourself in your
youth?’’ Blessed Francis continued: ‘‘ The very
word youth decides the question, because I made
the vow at that time with less reflection, but now
that I am older I say to you, Do not do it. Ido not
tell you not to say your rosary; on the contrary,
I advise you as earnestly as I can, and even conjure
you not to allow a single day to pass without recit-
ing that prayer, which is most pleasing to God, and
to the Blessed Virgin. But do it from a firm and
fixed purpose, rather than from a vow, so that if
you should happen to omit it either from weariness
or forgetfulness, or any other circumstance, you
may not be perplexed by scruples, and run the risk
of offending God. For it is not enough to vow,
we must also pay our vow, and that under pain of
sin, which is no small matter. I assure you that
this vow has often been a hindrance to me, and
many a time I have been on the point of asking to
be dispensed, and set free from it, or at least of
having it changed into some other work of equal
worth, which might interfere less with the discharge
of my duties.”
“ But,’’ rejoined this person, ‘‘is not what is
done by vow more meritorious than what is done
only from a firm and settled purpose? ° ‘‘I sus-
pected that was it,” replied Blessed Francis; ‘‘ in
that case who do you wish should profit by what
you do?” “A fine question,” cried the other,
312 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
“my neighbour, do you think? No, certainly,
I want to gain it for myself.’ ‘‘ Then there is
nothing more to be said,” replied Blessed Francis.
“I see I have been making a mistake. I imagined,
of course, that you wished to make your vow to
God, for God, and for His sake, and so by your vow
to merit or gain something for God. What! Are
we to talk of our merits and graces as if He needed
them, and were not Himself absolute merit and infi-
nite goodness and perfection? ”
Our Blessed Father loved to see this bird beating
its wings against the bars of its cage. At last to
let him fly, he said: ,‘ But what then is merit, but
a work pleasing to God, and a work done in His
grace, and by His help, and for His love—a work
which He rewards with increase of graceand glory ?’
‘““ Certainly,” said the other, ‘‘ that is how I, too,
understood it.’’ ‘‘ Well, then,” replied he, “‘ if
you understand it thus, why do you contend against
your understanding and your conscience? Are we
not meriting for God, when we do a good work in a
state of grace and for the love of God? And ought
not the love of God which seeks nothing but His
interests, that is to say, His glory, to be the chief
end and final aim of all our good works, rather than
the reward we thereby merit, which is merely an
accessory ? ”
‘* And of what use to God are the merits and good
works of men?” continued the other. ‘‘ For one
thing,” replied he, ‘‘ God thereby saves you from
taking a false step. You are standing on the brink
of a precipice, and you have your eyes shut. Let
me give you a helping hand.”
“In very truth, no good works of ours, though
Against the making of rash vows 818
done ina state of grace and for the love of God, can
increase His interior and essential glory. The
reason is that this glory, being God Himself and
consequently infinite, can neither be increased by
our good actions nor diminished by our sins; and
it is in this sense that David says that God is God
and has no need of our goods.* It is not thus,
however, with the exterior glory which is rendered
to Him by creatures, and for the obtaining of which
He drew them forth out of nothingness into exist-
ence. This is finite, by reason of its subject, God’s
creature, and therefore can be increased by our
good works done in and for the love of God, or,
on the other hand, diminished by our evil actions,
by which we dishonour God, and rob Him of His
glory, though only of glory which is exterior and
outside of the divine nature.
Now that we do increase the exterior glory of
God by our good works, done as I have said, is
evident from the testimony of the Apostle, when he
calls the man who is purified from sin by justifying
grace: A vessel unto honour sanctified and profit-
able to the Lord prepared unto every good work.t
Indeed, it is the very fact that a work done in
grace increases the exterior glory of God, which
makes it meritorious, His goodness being pledged
by His promise to glorify those who glorify Him,
and to give the crown of justice to those who fight
the good fight, and who do, or endure, anything
for the glory of His name. This is why I said that
we must merit for God, that is to say, we should
refer our actions to the glory of God, and act out
of love for Him. So we shall merit eternal life,
Psal. AV: 2. t2 Tim. Ti” bn
314 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
provided always we be free from mortal sin, since
God is not pledged to give the glories of heaven to
any but those who shall labour in His grace.
If, on the other hand, we wish to merit for our-
selves, that is to say, if we positively intend that
the whole aim of our labour be the reward of grace,
or glory, which we hope for: and if we do not, in
performing our good works seek first and chiefly
the glory of God; then we really merit nothing for
ourselves, since we do nothing for God. The
reason of this is that there is so close a relationship
between merit and reward (the two Latin names for
them, meritum and merces, having the same root
and meaning), that one cannot exist without the
other any more than a mountain without a valley,
or paternity without sonship.
You see now that in the theory you have unwit-
tingly adopted you entirely destroy the nature of
true merit, and are in danger of being shipwrecked
on the same rock as those heretics of our day who
hold that good works are unprofitable for salvation.
I am convinced, as you may well believe, that you
are as far from wishing to run the risk with them
as you are from sharing their belief.
Remember this, that in order to do a good work
in true charity you must not make your own interest
your ultimate aim, but God’s interest, which is
nothing else but His exterior glory. The more,
too, that you think of God’s interest the more He
will think of yours, and the less you trouble your-
self about reward, the greater will your reward be
in heaven, because pure love, never mercenary,
looks only to the good of the beloved one, not to its
own. This is the end and aim of the sacred teach-
Against the making of rash vows 315
ing that we must seek first the Kingdom of God,
that is to say, His glory, knowing assuredly that
in seeking this all good things will be added unto
us.
He who only wishes to merit for himself does
nothing for God and merits nothing for himself :
but, on the other hand, he who does everything for
God and for His honour merits much for himself.
In this game he who loses, wins; and he who
thinks only of winning for himself, plays a losing
game. His good works are, as it were, hollow, and
weigh too lightly in the divine balance. He falls
asleep on his pile of imaginary spiritual wealth,
and awakening finds he has nothing in his hands.
He has laboured for himself, not for God, and
therefore receives his reward from himself and not
from God. Like a moth, he singes his wings in
the flame of a merit which is truly imaginary, no
work being really meritorious except that which is
done in a state of grace, and with God for its last
end.”
‘ All this,” replied the person, ‘‘ does not at all
satisfy me on the point which I brought forward,
namely, as to whether work done by vow is not
more meritorious than that which is done without
it, seeing that to the action of the particular virtue
which is vowed is added that of the virtue of reli-
gion which is the vow.”
“‘ Certainly,” replied our Blessed Father, ‘‘ as
regards the question whether it is more meritorious
to say the Rosary by vow rather than of one’s free
choice, it is undoubtedly, as you say, adding one
act of virtue to another to do so in discharge of one’s
vow, for is not prayer the highest of all religious
66
316 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
actions? Again, if I pray with devotion and fervour,
am I not adding to prayer another religious action,
which is devotion? If I offer to God this prayer,
as incense, or a spiritual sacrifice, or as an obla-
tion, are not sacrifice and oblation two religious
actions? Moreover, if by this prayer I desire to
praise God, is not divine praise a religious act?
If in praying I adore God, is not adoration one
also ?
And if I pray thus with devotion, adoration,
sacrifice, oblation, and praise, have we not here
five acts of the virtue of religion added by me to
the sixth, which is prayer? ”
“ But,” rejoined the other, ‘“‘the vow is more
than all that? “‘If,? replied Blessed Francis,
‘“‘ you say that the act of making a vow is in itself
more than all these six together, you must really
bring me some proof of its being so.”
“ I mean,” said the other, ‘‘ than each of these
acts taken separately.” ‘* That,’’ returned our
Blessed Father, ‘“‘ is not the opinion of the Angeli-
cal Doctor,* who, when enumerating the eleven
acts of religion, places the making a vow only in the
eighth rank, with Seven preceding it, namely,
prayer, devotion, adoration, sacrifice, oblation, the
paying of tithes, and first-fruits; and three after
it: the praise of God, the taking of lawful oaths,
and the adjuring of creatures in God.
It is not that the act of making a vow is not an
excellent thing; but we have no right to set it above
other virtues which surpass it in excellence, and
other good works of greater worth. We must leave
everything in its place, going neither against the
*S. Thom. 2a, 22%, queest, xxill. art. vii.
Against the making of rash vows 317
order of reason nor against that of divine charity.
A man who boasts too much of his noble birth
provokes scrutiny into the genuineness of his claim
and risks its being disallowed.”
‘“All the same,’’ persisted this person, “I
maintain that a good work done by vow is
more meritorious than one done without it,
charity, of course, being taken for granted.’’
“It is not enough,” replied Francis, ‘‘to take
charity for granted. We must also suppose it
to be greater in the man who does the action with a
vow than in the one who does it without; for if he
who says some particular prayer, because bound by
vow, has less charity than he who says the same with-
out being so bound, he, doubtless, has, and you will
not deny it, less merit than the other, because merit
is not in proportion to the vow made, but to the
charity which accompanies it, and without which it
has neither life nor value.”
“* And supposing equal charity, vow, or no vow,”
resumed the person, “ will not the action done by
vow have greater merit than the other?”’ “It will
only have the same eternal glory for its reward,”
replied our Blessed Father, “‘ in so far as it has the
same amount of charity, and thus each will receive
the same reward of eternal life.
But as regards accidental glory, supposing that
there were a special halo for the vow which would
add a fourth to the three of which schoolmen treat,
or, if you wish, that there should be as many special
and accidental halos of glory as there are kinds of
virtue, they will be unequal in accidental glory.
But then we should have to prove that this mul-
tiplicity of halos, or accidentat glories, exists, in
318 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
addition to the three of which the schoolmen speak.
This I would ask you now to do, though I am doubt-
ful as to the result.”
‘‘ Of what then does it avail you,” said the other,
‘“to have made that vow about which I have been
consulting you?”
“It renders me,” replied our Blessed Father,
‘“more careful, diligent, and attentive in keeping
my word to God, in binding myself closer to Him,
in strengthening me to keep my promise (for I do
not deny that there is something more stable in the
vow than in mere purpose and resolution), in keep-
ing myself from the sin I might incur, if I should
failin what I have vowed, in stimulating me to do
better, and to make use of this means to further my
progress in the love of God.’’ ‘‘ You do not then
pretend to merit more on account of it?’’ said the
other. ‘‘I leave all that to God,” replied Francis.
‘“ He knows the measure of grace which He gives,
or wishes to give me. I desire no more, and only
as much as it may please Him to bestow on me for
His glory. Love is not eager to serve its own
interests, it leaves the care of them to its Beloved,
who will know how to reward those who love Him
with a pure and disinterested love.”
I close this subject with two extracts from the
writings of our Blessed Father. In the first he says.
“I do not like to hear people say, We must do
this, or that, because there is more merit in it. There
is more merit in saying, ‘We must do all for the
glory of God.’ If we could serve God without
merit—which cannot be done—we ought to wish to
do so. It is to be feared that by always trying to
discover what is most meritorious we may miss our
His victory over the passions, dc. 319
way, like hounds, which when the scent is crossed,
easily lose it altogether.”
UPON THE PRO-PASSIONS OF OUR LORD.
I have been asked whether our Lord Jesus Christ
had passions. I cannot do better than answer in
the exact words of our Blessed Father, taken from
his Theotimus. He says:
‘“ Jesus Christ feared, desired, grieved, and
rejoiced. He even wept, grew pale, trembled, and
sweated blood, although in Him these effects were
not caused by passions like to ours. Therefore
the great St. Jerome, and, following his example,
the Schools of Theology, out of reverence for the
divine Person in whom they existed, do not dare
to give the name of passions to them, but call them
reverently pro-passions, to show that in our Lord‘
these sensible emotions, though not passions, took
the place of passions. Moreover, He suffered
nothing whatever on account of them, excepting
what seemed good to Him, governing and con-
trolling them at His will. This, we who are
sinners do not do, for we suffer and groan under
these disorderly emotions, which, against our will,
and to the great prejudice of our spiritual peace
and welfare, disturb our souls.’’*
HIS VICTORY OVER THE PASSIONS OF LOVE AND
ANGER.
Blessed Francis candidly owned that the two
passions which it cost him the most to conquer
were “‘love of creatures and’anger.’’ The former
*Book I. chap. 3.
320 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
he overcame by skill, the latter by violence, or as
he himself was wont to say, ‘“‘ by taking hold of
his heart with both hands.”
The strategy by which he conquered love of
creatures was this. He gave his affections an alto-
gether new object to feed upon and to live for, an
object absolutely pure and holy, the Creator. The
soul, we know, cannot live without love, therefore
all depends on providing it with an object worthy
of its love. Our will is like our love. ‘‘ We be-
come earthly,” says St. Augustine, ‘“‘ if we love the
earth, but heavenly if we love heaven. Nay more,
if we love God, we actually, by participation,
become godlike. Osee, speaking of idolaters, says:
They became abominable as those things were
which they loved.*’’ All our Saint’s writings
breathe love, but a love so holy, pure, and beautiful
as to justify itself in every expression of it:—Pure
words. . . . justified in themselves. ... sweeter
than honey and the honeycomb.
As regards the passion of anger, which was very
strong in him, he fought against it, face to face,
with such persevering force and success that meek-
ness and gentleness are considered his chief char-
acteristics.
UPON OUR PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS.
One day, at a time when I was writing a treatise
on the subject of the human passions—which
treatise was afterwards published among my
Miscellaneous Works—I went to him to be ~
enlightened upon several points.
After having answered my questions, and satis-
*Osee ix. 10,
Upon our passions and emotions 321
fied my mind, he asked me: ‘‘ And what will you
say about the affections?” I must confess that
this question surprised me, for though I am quite
aware of the distinction between the reasonable and
the sensitive appetite, I had no idea that there was
such a difference between the passions and the
affections, as he told me existed. I imagined that
when the passions were governed by reason, they
were Called affections, but he explained to me that
this was not so at all. He said that our sensitive
appetite was divided into two parts: the concu-
piscent and the irascible. .. .
The reasonable appetite is also divided, like the
sensitive, into the concupiscent and the irascible,
but it makes use of the mind as its instrument.
The sensitive concupiscent appetite is again sub-
divided into six passions: 1, love; 2, hate; 3,
desire; 4, aversion; 5, joy; 6, sadness. The
irascible comprises five passions: I, anger; 2,
hope; 3, despair; 4, fear; 5, courage.
The reasonable appetite, which is the will, has
just as many affections, and they bear the same
names. There is, however, this difference between
the passions and the affections. We possess the
passions in common with the irrational brute crea-
tion, which, as we see, is moved by love, hate,
desire, aversion, joy, sadness, anger, hope, despair,
fear, and fearlessness, but without the faculty of
reason to guide and regulate the impulse of the
senses.
The carnal man, that is to say, he who allows
himself to be carried away by the impetuosity of
his feelings, is, says the Psalmist: compared to
senseless beasts and 1s become like to them.*
*Psal. xlviii. 13.
322 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
He, however who makes use of his reason, directs
his affections uprightly and well, employing them
in the service of the reasonable appetite, only in as
far as they are guided by the light and teaching of
natural reason. As this, however, is faulty and
liable to deceptions and illusions, mistakes are
often made which are called by philosophers dis-
orders of mind.
But when the regenerate, that is to say, the
christian who possesses both grace and charity,
makes use of the passions of his sensitive appetite,
as well as of the affections of his reason, for the
glory of God, and for the love of Him alone, this
does not happen. Then he loves what he ought
to love, he hates what he ought to hate, he desires
what God wills that he should desire, he flies from
what displeases God, he is saddened by offences
done against God, he rejoices and takes delight in
the things which are pleasing to God. Then his
zeal fills him with anger and indignation against
all that detracts from the honour due to God; he
hopes in God and not in the creature, he fears
nothing save to offend God, he is fearless in God’s
service. Thus, the Psalmist, a man after God’s
own heart, was able to say that his flesh, that is,
the passions seated in his senses, and his heart,
namely, the affections rooted in his mind, rejoiced
in the living God.*
The winds, which, as some of the ancients held,
come forth from the caverns and hollows of the
earth, produce two very different effects upon the
sea. Without winds we cannot sail, and yet
through them tempests and shipwrecks happen.
*Psal. Ixxxtii. 3.
How he came to write his Philothea 3238
The passions and affections shut up tn the two
caverns of the concupiscent and the irascible
appetite are so many inward impulses which urge
us on to evil if they are rebellious, disorderly, and
irregular, but if directed by reason and charity, lead
us into the haven of rest, the port of life eternal.
This is what our Blessed Father taught me, and
if you desire any more information on the subject
you will find it in his Treatise on the Love of
God.* His words did indeed open my eyes! They
were of the greatest assistance to me in writing the
book I alluded to.
How HE CAMETO WRITE HIS PHILOTHEA.
There is something remarkable about the origin
of this book, An Introduction to the Devout Life,
addressed by him to Philothea, that is, to every
soul which desires to love and serve God, and
especially to persons living in the world. One
peculiarity about it is that it was composed two
years before its author had thought of writing any
book at all. He says on this subject in his pre-
face:
““Tt was by no choice or desire of mine that this
Introduction saw the light. Some time ago, a
soul’ richly endowed with honourable and virtuous
qualities, having received from God the grace to
aspire to the devout life, desired my special assist-
ance in the matter. I, on my part, having had
much to do with her in spiritual concerns, and
having for a long time past observed in her a
*Book I. chap. 5.
1Madame de Charmoisy, née Louise Dutchatel. [Ed.]
324 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
great aptitude for such a life, took great pains in
instructing her. I not only led her through all
the exercises suitable to her condition and aspira-
tions, but I also gave her some written notes, to
which she might refer when necessary. Later on
she showed these to a learned and devout Religious
man, who, considering that they might be of use
to many, strongly urged me to publish them,
which he easily persuaded me to do, because his
friendship had great power over me, and because I
valued his judgment very highly.”
I am able to give some further details. This
soul richly endowed with honourable and virtuous
qualities, as our Blessed Father described her to
be, was a lady from Normandy of good family,
who had married a gentleman of note in Savoy.
His estates were partly in the diocese of Geneva,
where he mostly resided, and he was nearly related
to our Blessed Father. The lady, who was of a
most pious disposition, decided that she could not
possibly choose a better guide in the devout life
than our Saint, her Bishop, and her relative by
marriage. i
Blessed Francis instructed her carefully both by
word of mouth and also by written lessons, which
she not only kept and treasured up, but sorted
and arranged according to their various subjects,
so as to be able to find in a moment the counsel
she wanted.
For two years she went on steadily collecting
and amassing these precious documents as one by
one he wrote them for her. At the end of that
time, owing to the disturbed state of the country,
a great change came over her life. Her husband
How he came to write his Philothea 325
served his Prince, the Duke of Savoy, in the war
in Piedmont, and was obliged to leave the manage-
ment of all his affairs and of his property to his
wife, who was as skilful in such matters as she
was devout. |
The business of a great lawsuit in which her
husband was concerned obliged her to take up her
residence for more than six months at Chambery,
where the senate or parliament was held.
During her stay in this place she took for her
director Pére Jean Ferrier, the Rector of the Jesuit
College, and confessor to our Blessed Father. In
her difficulties she applied to this Father for advice,
and he willingly gave it.
Sometimes it agreed with what Blessed Francis
had said to her on similar occasions, sometimes it
differed. When it differed, in order to prove that
she was not speaking at random, and that she had
something stronger than her own memory to rely
upon, she would show him some of the written
memoranda of which I have spoken.
The good Priest, who was deeply versed in all
spiritual matters, found so much in them that was
profitable and delightful, that on one occasion he
asked her if she had many more of the same sort.
“So many, Father,” she replied, ‘‘ that if they
were arranged in proper order they would make a
good-sized volume.”
The Father at once expressed his wish to see
them all, and after having slowly and thoughtfully
perused them, begged as a further favour that he
might have several copies made of them.
This being readily granted, he distributed the
said copies among the Fathers of the College, who
326 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
fully appreciated the gift, and treasured it most
carefully.
When this lady returned to Geneva, the Father
Rector wrote a letter by her to our Blessed Father,
praising her many virtues and her business talents,
and begging him to continue to guide and counsel
a soul so rich in all christian graces and heavenly
dispositions. He then went on to extol in the
highest terms the written teaching with which he
(Francis) had assisted her. Our Blessed Father
read Père Ferrier’s first letter, he has told me,
without giving a thought to the matter of his own
writings. But when this was followed by letter
upon letter urging and imploring him not to keep
such a treasure buried, but to allow other souls to
be enlightened and guided in the way of salvation
by his teaching, our Blessed Father was puzzled.
He wrote to Père Ferrier saying that his present
charge was so onerous, and engrossing, that he had
no leisure for writing, and moreover that he had
no talent for it, and could not imagine why people
wanted him to attempt to do so. Père Ferrier
replied, saying that if his Lordship did not publish
the excellent instructions which he had given in
writing to this lady he would be keeping back
truth unlawfully, depriving souls of great advan-
tages, and God of great glory. Our Blessed
Father, much surprised, showed the letter to the
lady, begging her to explain it. She replied that
Pére Ferrier had made the same request to her,
entreating her to have the memoranda, given her for
her private direction, published.
“ What memoranda?’’ said Blessed Francis.
“ Oh! Father,” replied the lady, ‘‘do you not re-
How he came to write his Philothea 327
member all those little written notes on various
subjects which you gave me to help my memory ?”’
‘‘ And pray what could be done with those notes? ”’
he enquired. ‘‘ Possibly you might make a sort of
Almanack out of them, a sentence for every day in
the year.” ‘‘An Almanack!” cried the lady.
“ Why, Father, do you know that there are enough
of them to fill a big book! Little by little the pile
has grown larger than you would think! Many
feathers make a pound, and many strokes of the
pen make a book. You had better see the papers,
and judge for yourself. The Father Rector has
had them copied, and they make a thick volume.”
“ What!” cried Blessed Francis, “‘ has the good
Father really had the patience to read through all
these poor little compositions, put together for the
use of an unenlightened woman! You have done
us both a great honour, indeed, by giving the
learned doctor such a trifle to amuse himself with,
and by showing him these precious productions of
mine! ”?” ‘‘ Yet he values them so much,” replied
the lady, “‘ that he persists in assuring me that he
has never come across any writings more useful,
or more edifying; and he goes on to say that this
is the general feeling of all the Fathers of his
house, who are all eager to possess copies. If you
refuse to take the matter in hand, they will them-
selves see that this light is not left much longer
under a bushel.’’ ‘* Really,” said our Blessed
Father, ‘‘ it is amazing that people should want me
to believe that I have written a book without mean-
ing it. However, let us examine these precious
pearls of which so much is thought.”
The lady then brought to him all the bundles
328 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of notes which she had shown to Pére Ferrier.
Our Blessed Father was astonished to see how
many there were, and wondered at the care which
the lady had taken to collect and preserve them.
He asked to be allowed to look them through
again, and begged Père Ferrier not to attempt to
send to the press disconnected and detached
fragments which he had never for a moment
thought of publishing. He added, however, that
if on examination he thought that what had been
written for the consolation of one soul might prove
useful to others, he would not fail to put them into
good order, and to add what was necessary to make
them acceptable to those who might take the
trouble to read them.
This he did, and the result was the Introduction,?
which we are therefore justified in saying was com-
posed two years before its author thought of
writing it!
The simplicity, beauty, and usefulness of this
book is well known. It showed the possibility of
living a holy life in any station, amid the tumult of
worldly cares, the seductions of prosperity, or the
temptations of poverty. It brought new light to
devout souls, and encouragement to all, whether
high or low, who were desirous of finding and
following Jesus.
But, alas! there is a reverse side to the picture.
I mean the misrepresentations and calumnies which
our Blessed Father had to endure from those who
pretended that the principles on which the book
was based were absurd, and that it inculcated a
1The Saint added advice given by him to his mother and
others. [Ed.]
How he came to write his Philothea 329
degree of devotion quite impracticable in ordinary
life.
I can hardly speak calmly about this matter, and
so content myself with remarking that in spite of
bitter opposition the book has already, in my own
time, passed through thirty editions in French, and
has been translated not only into Latin, but into
Italian, Spanish, German, English, in short, into
most European languages.
In order that you may not think, however, that
I have exaggerated in what I have said of the
opposition which it excited, I will close the subject
with our Blessed Father’s own calm and gentle
words of lament. In his preface to the Treatise on
the Love of God, he says:
“ Three or four years afterwards I published the
Introduction to a Devout Life upon the occasion,
and in the manner which I have put down in the
preface thereof: regarding which I have nothing to
say to you, dear reader, save only that, though this
little book has in general had a gracious and kind
acceptance, yes, even amongst the gravest Prelates
and Doctors of the Church, yet it has not escaped
the rude censure of some who have not merely
blamed me but bitterly and publicly attacked me,
because I tell Philothea that dancing is an action
indifferent in itself, and that for recreation’s sake
One may make puns and jokes. Knowing the
quality of these censors, I praise their intention,
which I think was good. I should have desired
them, however, to please to consider that the first
proposition is drawn from the common and true
doctrine of the most holy and learned divines; that
I was writing for such as live in the world, and at
330 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
court; that withal I carefully point out the ex-
treme dangers which are found in dancing; and
that as to the second proposition, it is not mine but
St. Louis’, that admirable King, a Doctor worthy
to be followed in the art of rightly conducting
courtiers to a devout life. For, I believe, if they
had weighed this, their charity and discretion
would never have permitted their zeal, how
vigorous, and austere soever, to arm their indigna-
tion against me.”
UPON THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.
God said to Moses: Look, and make it (the
tabernacle) according to the pattern that was shewn
thee in the mount,* and he did so. The ancient
philosopher was right when he described the art of
imitating as the mistress of all others, because it is
by making copies that we learn how to draw
originals. ‘‘ The way of precept is long,” said the
Stoics, “‘ but example makes it short and effica-
cious.’ Seneca, treating of the best method of
studying philosophy, says that it is to nourish and
clothe ourselves with the maxims of eminently
philosophical minds.
Blessed Francis always inculcated this practice of
imitating others in virtue. Hence his choice of
spiritual books to be read and followed. With re-
spect to the Lives of the Saints, he advised the
reading by preference of those of holy men and
women whose vocation has either been identical
with or very much like our own, in order that we
may put before ourselves models we can copy more
closely.
*Exod. xxv. 40.
Upon the example of the saints 331
On one occasion, however, when I was telling
him how I had taken him for my pattern, and how
closely I watched his conduct and ways, trying
thereon to model my own, and that he must be
careful not to do anything less perfect, for if he did,
I should certainly imitate it as a most exalted
virtue, he said: ‘‘It is unfortunate that friend-
ship, like love, should have its eyes bandaged and
hinder us from distinguishing between the defects
and the good qualities of the person to whom we
are attached. What a pity it is that you should
force me to live among you as if I were in an
enemy’s country, and that I have to be as sus-
picious of your eyes and ears as if you were spies!
Still I am glad that you have spoken to me
as you have done, for a man warned is a man
armed, and I seem to hear a voice saying: ‘ Child
of earth, be on thy guard, and always walk circum-
spectly, since God and men are watching thee!’
Our enemies are constantly on the alert to find fault
and injure us by talking against us; our friends
ought to observe us just as narrowly but for a very
different reason, in order, namely, that they may
be able to warn us of our failings, and kindly to
help us to get rid of them.
The just man, says the Psalmist, shall correct
me in mercy, and shall reprove me, but let not the
oil of the sinner fatten my head. By the oil of the
sinner is meant flattery. Do not be offended with
me if I assure you that you are still more cruel to
me, for you not only refuse to give me a helping
hand to aid me in getting rid of my faults, which
you might do by wholesome and charitable warn-
ings, but you seem by your unfair copying of my
332 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
faults to wish to make me an accomplice in your
own wrong doings!
As for me, the affection God has given me for
you is very different. My jealousy for God’s
honour makes me long so ardently to see you walk
in His ways that your slightest failing is intoler-
able to me, and so far am I from wishing to imi-
tate your faults, that, if I seem to overlook them
for a time, I am, believe me, doing violence to
myself, by waiting with patience for a fitting
Opportunity to warn you of them.”’
UPON THE LOVE OF GOD’S WORD.
Blessed Francis considered—as indeed I have
already told you in another place—that to love to
listen to God, speaking to us, either by the
living voice of His Priests, or in pious books,
which are often the voice of His Saints, was one
of the strongest marks of predestination.
But he also insisted on the folly and uselessness
of listening to, or reading, without putting in prac-
tice the lessons so conveyed to us. This, he said,
was like beholding our faces in a glass, then going
our way, and forgetting what we are like. It is
to learn the will of our Master and not to take
pains to fulfil His commands.
In his Philothea he says:
‘“ Be devoted to the word of God, whether it
comes to you in familiar conversation with your
Spiritual friends, or in listening to sermons. Al-
ways hear it with attention and reverence, profit by
it as much as possible, and never permit it to fall
to the ground. Receive it into your heart as a
precious balm, following the example of the
Hais love of retirement 333
Blessed Virgin, who kept carefully in her heart
every word that was spoken in praise of her divine
Child. Do not forget that our Lord gathers up
the words which we speak to Him in our prayers,
in proportion to the diligence with which we gather
up those He addresses to us by the mouth of His
preachers.”
As regards spiritual reading, he recommended it
most strongly as being food for the soul, which we
could always keep at hand, at all times and in all
places. He said that we might be where we could
not always hear sermons, or easily have recourse to
a spiritual director and guide, and that our memory
might not always serve us to recall what we had
been taught, either by preachers, or by those who
had instructed us specially and individually in the
way of salvation. He therefore desired those
who aspired to lead a devout life to provide them-
selves with pious books which would kindle in
their hearts the flame of divine love, and not to
let a single day pass without using them. He
wished them to be read with great respect and
devotion, saying that we should regard them as
missives ‘‘ sent to us by the Saints from heaven,
to show us the way thither, and to give us courage
to persevere in it.”
HIS LOVE OF RETIREMENT.
It is well known that if our Blessed Father had
lived to return from Lyons, his intention was to
retire from the world and its activities in which he
had so long taken a part, and to lead henceforth a
purely contemplative life.
With this intention he had, some years before
334 The Spirit of St. Frances De Sales
his death, caused a little hermitage to be built in
a most suitable and sequestered spot on the shores
of the beautiful lake of Annecy. This, however,
he had had done quite quietly without giving any
idea of the real purpose for which it was destined.
On this same shore there is a Benedictine Monas-
tery called Taloire, easily accessible, as it is built
on the slope of the hill. Into it he had introduced
some salutary reforms, and he was on terms of the
most affectionate intimacy with the holy men who
lived a hidden life in its quiet seclusion.
At the top of a neighbouring spur of this same
mountain, on a gentle and smooth rising ground,
surrounded by rich vineyards and delightful shrubs
of various kinds, watered by clear streams, stood
an old chapel, dedicated to God, under the name
of St. Germain, a Saint who had been one of the
first monks in the Monastery and who is greatly
honoured in that part of the country. Blessed
Francis secretly gave the necessary funds for re-
pairing and decorating this chapel, and for building
round it five or six cells pleasantly enclosed. This
hermitage, the Superior said, would be most useful
to his monks, enabling them to make their spiritual
retreats in quiet solitude. Indeed, from time to
time he sent them there for this purpose, in accord-
ance with the rule of St. Benedict, which so greatly
recommends solitude, a rule practised to the letter
in the hermitages of Montserrat in Spain.
Here, then, in this quiet and lonely retreat, it
was the intention of Blessed Francis to spend the
last years of his life, and when he spoke upon the
subject in private to the good Prior, he expressed
himself in these words: ‘‘ When I get to onp her-
How he sanctified his recreations 335
mitage I will serve God with my breviary, my
rosary, and my pen. Then I shall have plenty of
happy and holy leisure, which I can spend in put-
ting on paper, for the glory of God and the instruc-
tion of souls, thoughts which have been surging
through my mind for the last thirty years and
which have been useful to me in my sermons, in
my instructions, and in my own private medita-
tions. My memory is crowded with these, but
I hope, besides, that God will inspire me with
others, and that ideas will fall upon me from
heaven thick and fast as the snowflakes which
in winter whiten all our mountains. Oh!
who will give me the wings of a dove, that I may
fly to this holy resting place, and draw breath for a
little while beneath the shadow of the Cross? I
expect until my change come!’’*
How HE SANCTIFIED HIS RECREATIONS.
Blessed Francis, gentle and indulgent to others
as regards recreation, was severe towards himself
in this matter. He never had a garden in either
of the two houses which he occupied during the
time of his episcopate, and only took walks when
the presence of guests made them necessary, or
when his physician prescribed them for his health,
for he obeyed him faithfully.
But he acted otherwise with his friends and
neighbours. He approved of agreeable conversa-
tion after meals, never showing weariness, or
making them feel ill at ease. When I went to visit
him, he took pains to amuse me after the fatigue
of preaching, either by a row on the beautiful lake
"Job xiv. 14.
336 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
of Annecy, or by delightful walks in the fine
gardens on its banks. He did not refuse similar
recreations which I offered him when he came to
see me, but he never asked for or sought them for
himself. Although he found no fault with those
who talked enthusiastically of architecture, pictures,
music, gardening, botany, and the like, and who
devoted themselves to these studies or amusements,
he desired that they should use them as mystical
ladders by means of which the soul may rise to
God, and by his own example he showed how this
might be done.
If any one pointed out to him rich orchards filled
with well-grown fruit trees: ‘‘ We,” he would say,
“are the agriculture and husbandry of God.”
If buildings of just proportion and symmetry:
“ We,” he would say, “‘ are the edifice of God.”’
If some magnificent and beautifully decorated
church: ‘‘ We are the living temples of the living
God. Why are not our souls as richly adorned
with virtues?” If flowers: ‘‘ Ah! when will our
flowers give fruits, and, indeed, be themselves fruits
of honour and integrity ? ”
When there was any talk of budding and graft-
ing, he would say: ‘‘ When shall we be rightly
grafted? When shall we yield fruits both plentiful
and well flavoured to the heavenly Husbandman,
who cultivates us with so much care and toil? ”
When rare and exquisite pictures were shown to
him: ‘‘ There is nothing,’ he would say, ‘‘so
beautiful as the soul which is made to the image
and likeness of God.”
When he was taken into a garden, he would
exclaim’: ‘‘ Ah! when will the garden of our soul
What he drew from some lines of poetry 337
be planted with flowers and plants, well cultivated,
all in perfect order, sealed and shut away from all
that can displease the heavenly Gardener, who
appeared under that form to Magdalen! ’’ At the
sight of fountains: ‘‘ When will fountains of
living water spring up in our hearts to life eternal ?
How long shall we continue to dig for ourselves
miserable cisterns, turning our backs upon the pure
source of the water of life? Ah! when shall we
draw freely from the Saviour’s fountains! When
shall we bless God for the rivers of Israel! ”
And so on with mountains, lakes, and rivers.
He saw God in all things and all things in God.
WHAT HE DREW FROM SOME LINES OF POETRY.
One day we went together into the cell of a cer-
tain Carthusian monk, a man whose rare beauty of
mind, and extraordinary piety, drew many to visit
him, and in later days have taken his candlestick
from under its bushel and set it up on high as one
of the lights of the French Church.
He had written in capital letters round the walls
of his cell these two beautiful lines of an old Latin
poet:
Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra
Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis.*
Thou art my rest in grief and care,
My light in blackest gloom ;
In solitude which thou dost share,
For crowds there is no room.
338 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Our Blessed Father read and re-read these lines
Several times, thinking them so beautiful that he
wished to engrave them on his memory, believing
that they had been written by some christian poet,
perhaps Prudentius. Finding, however, that they
were composed by a pagan, and on a profane sub-
ject, he said it was indeed a pity that so brilliant
a burst of light should only have flashed out from
the gross darkness of heathenism. ‘‘ However,”
he continued, “‘this good Father has made the
vessels of the Egyptians into a tabernacle, lining it
with the steel mirrors which had lent themselves to
feminine vanity. Thus it is that to the pure all
things are pure. This, indeed, is quite a different
thing from the way of acting of those who make
light of the holy words of Scripture, using them
carelessly and even jestingly in idle conversation,
a practice intolerable among christians who profess
to reverence these oracles of salvation.’’
We then began to analyse these beautiful lines,
taking them in the sense in which the holy monk
had taken them when he wrote them on his walls,
namely, as addressed to God. Our Blessed Father
said that God alone was the repose of those who had
quitted the world and its cares to listen to His voice
speaking to their hearts in solitude, and that with-
out this attentive hearkening, solitude would be a
long martyrdom, and a source of anxiety in place
of a centre of tranquillity.
At the same time he said that those who were
burdened with Martha’s busy anxieties would not
fail to enjoy in the very midst of their hearts the
deep peace of Mary’s better part, provided they
carried all their cares to God.
What he drew from some lines of poetry 339
We saw afterwards another inscription contain-
ing these words of the Psalmist:
This is my rest for ever and ever:
Here will I dwell for I have chosen it.*
‘Itis in God,” said our Blessed Father, ‘‘ rather
than in a cell, that we should choose our abode,
never to change it. Oh! happy and blessed are
they who dwell in that house, which is not only the
house of the Lord, but the Lord Himself. Happy,
indeed, for they shall praise Him for ever and
ever.”
Then we came upon another inscription, bearing
these words: One thing I have asked of the Lord,
this will I seek after; that I may see the delight of
the Lord and visit His Temple.t
‘“ This true dwelling of the Lord,” said he, “is
His holy will; which is signified by the word de-
light; i.e., pleasure. Since in God there is no
pleasure that is not good, what difference can there
be between the good pleasure and the will of God?
The will of God never tends but towards good-
ness.”
We then went back to the second part of the Latin
distich: Tu nocte vel atra, lumen: my light in
blackest gloom.
‘Yes, truly,” he said, ‘‘ Jesus born in Bethle-
hem brought a glorious day-dawn into the midst of
night; and by His Incarnation did He not come to
enlighten those who were sitting in darkness and in
the shadow of death? He is, indeed, our Light
and our Salvation ; when we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death we need fear nothing if He
*Psal. cxxxl. 14. Psal. xxvi. 4.
340 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
is at our side. He is the Light of the world; He
dwells in light tnaccessible, light that no darkness
can overtake. He alone can lighten our darkness.”
Upon the last clause of the beautiful verse:
Et in solis tu mihi turba locis.
In solitude which thou dost share, For crowds there
1s no room.
he said: “ Yes, communion with God in solitude
is worth a thousandfold the pleasantest converse
with the gay crowds who throng the doors of the
wealthy; for the rich man can only maintain his
splendour by dint of much toil, and is worn out by
his cares and by the importunity of others. Miser-
able, indeed, are riches acquired at so great cost,
retained with so much trouble, and yet lost with such
painful regret.”
This was one of his favourite sayings: ‘‘ We must
find our pleasure in ourselves when we are alone,
and in our neighbour as in ourselves when we are
in his company. Yet, wherever we may be, we
must primarily find our pleasure in God alone, who
is the maker of both solitude and society. He who
does otherwise will find all places wearisome and
unsatisfying ; for solitude without God is death, and
the society of men without God is more harmful
than desirable. Wherever we may be, if God is
there, all is well: where He is not, nothing is well:
without Him we can do nothing that has any
worth.”
UPON BEING CONTENT WITH OUR POSITION IN LIFE.
Perhaps there is nothing of which men are more
apt to complain than of their own condition in life.
This temptation to discontent and unhappiness is a
Upon self-sufficiency, ke. 341
favourite device of the enemy of souls. The holy
Bishop used to say: ‘“‘ Away with such thoughts!
Do not sow wishes in other people’s gardens; do
not desire to be what you are not, but rather try
most earnestly to be the best of what youare. Try
with all your might to perfect yourself in the state
in which God has placed you, and bear manfully
whatever crosses, heavy or light, may be laid upon
your shoulders. Believe me, this is the funda-
mental principle of the spiritual life; and yet, of
all principles it is the least well understood. Every
one follows the bent of his own taste and desires;
very few find their sole happiness in doing their
duty according to the pleasure of our Lord. What
is the use of building castles in Spain, when we
have to live in France!
This, as you remember, is old teaching of mine,
and by this time you ought to have mastered it
thoroughly.”
UPON SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND CONTENTEDNESS.
There is one kind of self-sufficiency which is blame-
worthy and another which is laudable. The former
is a form of pride and vanity, and those whom it
dominates are termed conceited. Holy Scripture
says of them that they trust in themselves. This
vanity is so absurd that it seems more deserving of
contempt and ridicule than of grave blame.
But to turn to good and rational contentedness.
Of it the ancient stoic said that what is sufficient is
always at our command, and that what we labour
for is superfluous; and again, that if we live accord-
ing to the laws of nature we shall never be poor, but
if we want to live according to our fancies we shall
never be rich.
342 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
To be contented with what really suffices, and to
persuade ourselves that what is more than this is
either evil or leading to evil, is the true means of
leading a tranquil, and therefore a happy, life.
This is not only my own opinion, but it is also
that of our blessed Father, who congratulates a
pious soul on being contented with the sufficiency
she had. ‘“‘ God be praised for your contentment
with the sufficiency which He has given you. Per-
severe in thanking Him for it. It is, indeed, the
beatitude of this poor earthly life to be contented
with what is sufficient, because those who are not
contented when they have enough will never be con-
tented, how much soever they may acquire. In the
words of your book—since you call it your book
—Nothing will ever content those who are not con-
tented when they have enough.
THE REVERENCE OF BLESSED FRANCIS FOR
THE SICK.
If the poor, by reason of their poverty, are mem-
bers of Jesus Christ, the sick are also such by reason
of their sickness. Our Saviour Himself has told
us so: I was sick, and you visited Me.* For if the
great Apostle St. Paul said that with the weak he
was weak,f how much more the divine Exemplar,
whom he but copied?
Our Blessed Father expressed as follows his feel-
ings of respect and honour towards a sick person
to whom he was writing. ‘‘ While I think of you
sick and suffering in your bed, I regard you with
special reverence, and as worthy of being singularly
honoured as a creature visited by God, clothed in
*Matt. xxv. 36, -t2) Gor. caeeze:
The reverence of Blessed Francis, £c. 343
His apparel, His favoured spouse. When our
Lord was on the Cross He was proclaimed King
even by His enemies, and souls who are bearing the
cross (of suffering) are declared to be queens. Do
you know why the angels envy us? Assuredly,
because we can suffer for our Lord, whilst they have
never suffered anything for His sake. St. Paul,
who had been raised to heaven and had tasted the
joys of Paradise, considered himself happy only
because of his infirmities, and of his bearing the
Cross of our Lord.”
Farther on he entreats her, as a person signed
with the Cross, and a sharer in the sufferings of
Jesus Christ, to commend to God, though in an
agony of pain, an affair of much importance which
concerned the glory of God. He held that in a con-
dition such as hers was, prayer would be more
readily heard, just as our Saviour, praying fer-
vently on the Cross, was heard for His reverence.
The Psalmist was of the same opinion, saying that
God heard him willingly when he cried to Him in
the midst of his tribulation, and that it was in his
afflictions that God was nearest to him.
Our Blessed Father believed that prayers offered
by those who are in suffering, though they be short,
are more efficacious than any others. He says:
‘“ I entreat you to be so kind as to recommend to
God a good work which I greatly desire to see
accomplished, and especially to pray about it when
you are suffering most acutely: for then it is that
your prayers, however short, if they are heartfelt,
will be infinitely well received. Ask God at that
time also for the virtues which you need the
most.”
344 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE CARE OF THE SICK.
One day we went together to visit a very aged
lady in her last illness. Her piety, which was of no
ordinary kind, made her look forward calmly to the
approach of death, for which she had prepared by
the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and of
the Blessed Eucharist. She only awaited the visit
of her doctor before asking for that of Extreme
Unction.
All her worldly affairs were in perfect order, and
but one thing troubled her, namely, that her chil-
dren who had all assembled round her, on hearing
of her danger, were too indefatigable in their atten-
dance upon her, and this, as she thought, to the
detriment of their own health. Our Blessed Father
wishing to comfort her, said tenderly: “‘ Do you
know that I, on the contrary, when I am ill, am
never so happy as when I see my relatives and ser-
vants all busy about me, tiring themselves out on
my behalf. You are astonished, and ask me why
I feel like this. Well, it is because I know that God.
will repay them generously for all these services.
For if a cup of cold water given to a poor man in
the love and for the love of God receives such a
reward as eternal life; if our least labours under-
taken for the love of God work in us the weight of a
supreme glory, why should we pity those whom we
see thus occupied, since we are not ill-disposed
towards them, nor envious of their advantages ?
For unto you it is given, said St. Paul to the
christians of his day, not only to believe in Christ,
but also to suffer for Him.
Upon the care of the Sick. 845
The reapers and vintagers are never happier than
when they are heavily laden, because that proves
the harvest, or the vintage, to have been plentiful.
In truth, if those who wait on us, whether in health
or in sickness, are only considering us, and not
God, and are only seeking to please us, they make
so bad a use of their toil that it is right they should
suffer for it. He who serves the prophet for the
love of the prophet shall receive the reward of the
prophet. But, if they serve us for the love of God
they are more to be envied than pitied; for he who
serves the prophet in consideration of Him who
sends him shall receive the reward of God, a reward
which passes all imagination, which is beyond price,
and which no words can express.”
In his visiting of the sick when on their death-
bed our Blessed Father was truly an angel of peace
and consolation. He treated the sick person with
the utmost sweetness and gentleness, speaking from
time to time a few words suited to his condition and
frame of mind, sometimes uttering very short ejacu-
latory prayers, or aspirations for him, sometimes
leading the sufferer to utter them himself, either
audibly, or, if speech was painful to him, secretly
in his heart; and then allowing him to struggle un-
disturbed with the mortal pains which were assail-
ing him.
He could not bear to see the dying tormented
with long exhortations. That was not the time, he
would say, for preaching, or even for long prayers;
all that was needed was to keep the soul sustained
in the atmosphere of the divine will, which was
to be its eternal element in heaven, to keep it up,
I say, by short beatings of the wings, like birds,
346 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
who in this way save themselves from falling to the
earth.
UPON SPEAKING WELL OF THE DEAD.
When any of his friends or relatives died he never
tired of speaking well of them nor of recommending
their souls to the prayers of others. He used to
say: ‘‘ We do not remember our dead, our dear
ones who have left us, nearly enough; and the
proof that we do not remember them enough is
that we speak of them too seldom. We turn away
conversation from that subject as though it were
a painful one; we let the dead bury their dead, their
memory die out in us with the sound of the funeral
knell, seeming to forget that a friendship which
can end even with death can never have been a
true one. Holy Scripture itself tells us that true
charity, that is, divine and supernatural love, is
stronger than death! It seems to me that as a
burning coal not only remains alive but burns more
intensely when buried under ashes, so sincere and
pure love ought to be made stronger by death, and
to impel us to more fervent prayers for our deceased
friends and relatives than to supplications for those
who are yet living.
For thus we look upon the dead more absolutely
as in God, since, having died in Him, as we piously
believe, they rest upon the bosom of His mercy.
Then, praise can no longer be suspected of flattery,
and, as it is a kind of impiety to tear to pieces the
reputation of the dead, like wild beasts digging up
a corpse to devour it; so it is a mark of piety to
rehearse and extol the good qualities of the departed,
Upon speaking well of the Dead. 347
since our doing so incites us to imitate them:
nothing affecting us so deeply and so strongly as
the example of those with whom we come in close
and frequent contact.”
In order to encourage people to pray for the dead
he used to represent to them that in this one single
work of mercy all the other thirteen are included,
explaining his statement in the following manner.
‘Are we not,” he would say, “‘in some sort
visiting the sick when we obtain by our prayers
relief or refreshment for the poor Souls in
purgatory ?
Are we not giving drink to the thirsty and feeding
the hungry when we bestow the cool, refreshing
dew of our prayers upon those who, plunged in the
midst of its burning flames, are all athirst and
hungering for the vision of God? When we help
on their deliverance by the means which Faith
suggests, are we not most truly ransoming
prisoners? Are we not clothing the naked when
we procure for soulsa garment of light, the light of
glory?
Is it not an act of the most princely hospitality
to obtain for them an entrance into the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to make them fellow-citizens with
the saints and servants of God in the eternal Zion?
Then, as regards the spiritual works of mercy.
Is it not the most splendid thing imaginable to
counsel the doubtful, to convert the sinner, to
forgive injuries, to bear wrongs patiently? And
yet, what is the greatest consolation we can give to
the afflicted in this life compared to the solace our
prayers bring to the poor souls who are in such
grievous suffering ? ”
348 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON DEATH.
Strictly speaking, the sojourn which we
make on earth, in the days of our flesh
and which we call life, is rather death than
life, since ‘‘every moment leads us from the
cradle to the grave.”
This made an ancient philosopher say that we
are dying every day of our lives, that every day
some portion of our being falls away, and that what
we call life is truly death.*
Hence the beautiful saying of the wise woman
of Thecua: We all die, and like waters that return
no more, we fall down into the earth.+
Nature has imprinted in the hearts of all men
a horror of death. Our Saviour, even, taking upon
Himself our flesh and making Himself like to His
brethren, sin only excepted, would not be exempted
from this infirmity, although He knew that the
passage into another world would set Him free
from all miseries and transport Him into a glory
which He already possessed as regarded His
soul. Seneca says that death ought not to be
considered an evil when it has been preceded by a
good life.
What makes death so formidable is that which
follows upon it. We have, however, the shield of
a most blessed hope to protect us against the terrors
that arise from fear of the divine judgments.
This hope makes us put our trust, not in our own
virtue, but solely in the mercy of God, and assures
us that those who trust in His goodness are never
confounded.
*Senec. Epist. 24. {2 Kings xiv. I4.
Upon Death 349
But, you say, I have committed many faults.
True, but who is so foolish as to think that he can
commit more sins than God can pardon? Who
would dare to compare the greatness of his guilt
with the immensity of that infinite mercy which
drowns his sins in the depths of the sea of oblivion
each time we repent of them for love of Him? It
belongs only to those who despair like Cain to
say that their sin is so great that there is no
pardon for them,* for with God there is mercy and
plentiful redemption, and He shall redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.t
Listen to the words of holy consolation which
were addressed by our Blessed Father to a soul
encompassed and assaulted by the terrors of death
and of the judgment to follow. They are to be
found in one of his letters. ‘“‘ Yes,” he says,
‘death is hideous indeed, that is most true, but
the life which is beyond, and which the mercy of
God will give to us, is much to be desired. There
must be no mistrust in your mind, for, miserable
though we may be, we are not half so miserable
as God is merciful to those who desire to love Him,
and have fixed their hope in Him. When St.
Charles Borromeo was at the point of death he had
the crucifix brought to him, that by the contem-
plation of his Saviour’s death he might soften the
bitterness of his last agony. The best remedy of
all against an unreasonable dread is meditation
upon the death of Him who is our life; we shculd
never think of our own death without going on to
reflect upon that of Christ.”
*Gen. iv. 13. tPsal. Ganx. 9-8.
850 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Upon WISHING TO DIE.
You ask me if we are permitted to wish for death
rather than offend God any more? I will tell you
a thought which I believe was suggested to me by
our Blessed Father, but I cannot distinctly
remember on what occasion.
“It is always dangerous to wish for death,
because this desire, generally speaking, is only to
be met with in those who have arrived at a very
high pitch of perfection, which we dare not think
we have reached, or else in persons of a morose
and melancholy temperament, and but seldom in
those of ordinary disposition like ourselves.”
It is alleged that David, St. Paul, and other
saints expressed their longing to be delivered from
the burden of this body so that they might appear
before God and be satisfied with the vision of His
glory. But we must remember that it would be
presumptuous to speak the language of Saints, not
having their sanctity, and to imagine that we had
it would be inexcusable vanity. To entertain such
a wish because of sadness, disappointment, or
dejection is akin to despair.
But, you say, itis that you may no longer offend
God. This, no doubt, shows great hatred of sin,
but the Saints longed for death, more that they
might glorify God. Whatever we may pretend, I
believe it to be very difficult to have only this one
end in view, in our desire to die. Usually it will
be found that we are simply discontented with life.
To get to heaven we must not only not sin, but we
must do good. If we refrain from sin we shall
escape punishment, but more is required to deserve
heaven.
Upon the same subject 351
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
There are some who imagine that St. Paul de-
sired to die in order only that he might sin no more
when he said that he felt in himself a contradiction
between the law of his senses and of his reason;
and, feeling this, cried out: Oh! unhappy man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?* These people, therefore, as though
they were so many little Apostles, when they are,
by some trifle, goaded to impatience, instantly say
that they desire to die, and pretend that their only
wish is to be in a condition in which they cannot
possibly offend God. This is, indeed, to cover up
mere impatience and irritation with a fine cloak!
But what is still worse, it is to wrench and distort the
words of the Apostle and apply them ina sense of
which he never thought. Our Blessed Father, in one
of his letters, gives an explanation of this passage
which is so clear and so excellent that I am sure
it will be useful to you. He speaks thus: ‘‘ Oh,
unhappy man that I am, said the great Apostle,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
He felt within himself, as it were, an armed host
of ill humours, antipathies, bad habits, and natural
inclinations which conspired to bring about his
spiritual death; and because he fears them he
declares that he hates them, and because he hates
them he cannot support them without pain, and
his grief makes him burst out into the exclamation
which he himself answers in these words: The
grace of God by Jesus Christ. This will deliver
him not from the death of the body with its
*Rom., vii. 24.
3852 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
terrors, not from the last combat, but from defeat
in the struggle, and will preserve him from being
overcome.
You see how far the Apostle is from
invoking death, although elsewhere he desires to
be set free from the prison of the body that he
may be with Jesus Christ. He calls the mass of
temptations which urge and incite him to sin a
body of death, sin being the true death of the soul.
Grace is the death of this death and the devourer
of this abortion of hell, for where sin abounded
grace superabounds.
Grace, which has been merited for us by Jesus
Christ our Saviour, to whom be honour and glory
for ever and ever.”
UPON THE DESIRE OF HEAVEN.
Here is a little village story to show how often
true and solid piety is to be found among the lowly
and ignorant, of whom the world thinks not at all.
I had it from the lips of our Blessed Father, who
loved to tell it.
While visiting his diocese, passing through a
little country town, he was told that a well-to-do
inhabitant was very ill and desired to see him, and
to receive his blessing before he died. Our Blessed
Father hastened to his bedside and found him at
the point of death, yet in full possession of all his
faculties. When he saw the Bishop the .good
farmer exclaimed: ‘‘ Oh! my Lord, I thank God
for permitting me to receive your blessing before I
die.”
Then the room being cleared of all his relations
and friends, and he being left quite alone with the
Upon the desire of heaven. 353
holy Prelate, he made his confession and received
absolution. His next question was, ‘‘ My Lord,
shall I die?” The Bishop, unwilling to alarm him
unnecessarily, answered quietly and reassuringly
that he had seen people far more ill than he recover,
but that he must place all his trust in God, the
Master of life and death, who knows the number
of our days, which cannot be even one more than
he has decreed.
“ But, my Lord,” returned the man, ‘‘do you
really yourself think that I shall die?’ ‘‘ My son,”
replied the good Prelate, “a physician could
answer that question better than I can. All I can
tell you is that I know your soul to be just now in
a very excellent state of preparation for death, and
that perhaps were you summoned at any other
time, you might not be so fit to go. The best
thing you can do is to put aside all desire of living
and all care about the matter, and to abandon your-
self wholly to the providence and mercy of God,
that He may do with you according to His good
pleasure, which will be undoubtedly that very
thing which is best for you.”
“ Oh, my Lord,” cried the sick man, ‘‘ it is not
because I fear to die that I ask you this, but rather
because I fear I shall not die, for I can’t reconcile
myself to the idea of recovering from this sickness.”
Francis was greatly surprised at hearing him
speak in this manner, for he knew that a longing
to die is generally either a grace given to very
perfect souls such as David, Elias, St. Paul, and
the like; or, on the contrary, in sinners a prelude
to despair, or an outcome of melancholy.
He therefore asked the man if he would really
Z
354 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
be sorry to live, and, if so, why such disgust for
life, the love of which is natural in all men.
‘“ My Lord,” answered the good man, “this
world appears to me to be of so small account that
I cannot think why so many people care for nothing
beyond what it has to give. If God had not com-
manded us to remain here below until He calls us
by death I should have quitted it long ago.”
The Bishop, imagining that the man had some-
thing on his mind, or that the bodily pain he was
enduring was too much for him, asked him what
his trouble was—perhaps something about money ?
“Not at all, replied he. “I have up tomine
present time, and I am seventy, enjoyed excellent
health, and have abundant means. Indeed, I do
not, thank God, know what poverty is.”
Francis questioned him as to his wife and chil-
dren, asking him if any one of them w s an anxiety
to him. ‘“‘They are each one a comfort and a
delight to me,” he answered. ‘‘ Indeed, if I had
any regret in quitting this world it would be that
I shall have to part from them.”
More and more surprised, and unable to under-
stand the man’s distaste for life, the Bishop said:
“Then, my brother, why do you so long for
death ? ”
““My Lord,” replied he, ‘‘it is because I have
heard in sermons so much about the joys of Para-
dise that this world seems to me a mere prison.”
Then, speaking out of the fullness of his heart, and
giving vent to his thoughts, he uttered marvellous
words concerning the Vision of God in Heaven,
and the love kindled by it in the souls of the
blessed.
Upon the desire of heaven 355
He entered into so many details respecting the
rapturous joys of Eternity that the good Bishop
shed tears of delight, feeling that the good man
had been taught by God in these things, and that
flesh and blood had not revealed them to him, but
the Holy Spirit.
After this, descending from those high and
heavenly speculations, the poor farmer depicted the
grandeur, the wealth, and the choicest pleasures
of the world in their true colours, showing their
intrinsic vileness, and how in reality they are
vanity and vexation of spirit, so as to inspire
Blessed Francis himself with increased contempt
for them. The Saint, nevertheless, did no more
than silently acquiesce in the good man’s feelings,
and to calm the excitement under which he saw
that he was labouring, desired him to make acts
of resignation, and indifference as to living or dying.
He told him to follow the example set by St.
Paul, and by St. Martin, and to make his own the
words of the Psalmist: For what have I in
heaven? And besides Thee what do I desire upon
earth ?*
A few hours later, having received Extreme
Unction from the hands of the holy Bishop, the
man quietly, and apparently without suffering,
passed from this world. So likewise may we when
our last hour comes fall gently asleep. Blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord!
Another story told me by our Blessed Father
relates to himself and a man with whom he came in
contact.
When he was at Paris in the year 1619, this
gentleman, who was not only rich in this world’s
*Psal. ikki. @s.
356 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
goods but also in piety and charity, came to consult
him on matters of conscience, and began thus:
“ Father, I am much afraid that I shall not save
my soul, and therefore I have come to you to beg
you to put me in the right way.”
The Bishop asked him what was the cause of
this fear. He answered: ‘‘ My being too rich.
You know Scripture makes the salvation of the
rich a matter of such difficulty that, in my case,
I fear it is an impossibility.”
Francis, thinking that perhaps he had made his
money dishonestly, and that on that account his
conscience was now pricking him, questioned him
as to this.
“ Not at all,’* he answered. ‘‘ My parents, who
were excellent people, left me no illgotten goods,
and what I have added to my inheritance has been
amassed by my own frugality and honest work.
God preserve me from the sin of appropriating
what belongs to my neighbour! No, my conscience
does not reproach me in that respect.’’
‘“ Well, then,” said the Bishop, “‘ have you made
a bad use of this wealth? ”
“I live,” he replied, ‘fin such a manner as be-
comes my rank and position, but I am afraid that
I do not give enough to the poor, and you know
that we shall be one day judged on this point.’’
“ Have you any children?” asked Francis.
“ Yes,” he replied; ‘“‘ but they are all well provided
for, and can easily do without me.”’
“ Really,” said the Bishop, ‘I do not see
whence your scruples can arise; you are the first
man I have ever met who has complained to me
of having too much money; most people never
have enough.”
\
What ts tt to Die in God 357
It was easy to set this good soul at rest, so docile
was he in following the Bishop’s advice. The latter
told me afterwards that he found upon enquiry
that the man had formerly held high appoint-
ments, discharging his duties in them most faith-
fully, but had retired from all in order to devote
himself to works of piety and mercy. Moreover,
he passed all his time in churches or hospitals, or
in the houses of the uncomplaining poor, upon
whom he spent more than half his income. By his
will, after his many pious legacies were paid, it
was found that our Lord Himself was his real heir,
for he gave to the town hospital a sum of money
equal to that which was divided among his children.
I may add that a life so holy and devoted was
crowned by a most happy death. Truly, Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!
WHAT IT IS TO DIE 1N GOD.
On one occasion Blessed Francis was asked
what it was to die in God; what was the meaning
of those words: Blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord, that they may rest from their labours, for
their works follow them.*
He replied that to die in God was tc die in the
grace of God, hecause God and His grace are as
inseparable as the sun and its rays. He was asked
again, if to die in God meant to die while in
habitual grace, or to die in the exercise of charity,
that is to say, whilst impelled by actual grace.
He answered that in order to be saved it was
enough to die in habitual or sanctifying grace,
that 1s to say, in habitual charity; seeing that those
*Apoc. xiv. 13.
358 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
who die in this state, as for instance newly-baptized
infants, though they may never have performed a
single act of charity, obtain Paradise by right of
inheritance, habitual charity making them children
of God by adoption. Those, however, who die,
not only in the holy and supernatural state of
habitual charity, but whilst actually engaged in
works of charity, come into the possession of
heaven by a double title, that of inheritance and
that of reward; therefore is it written that their
works follow them. The crown of justice is
promised by the just Judge to those who shall have
fought a good fight and finished their course with
perseverance, even to the end.
Going on to explain what is meant by man’s
dying in actual grace, he said that it was to die
while making acts of lively faith and hope, of
contrition, resignation, and conformity to the will
of God. He added these words, włuen have
always remained deeply impressed on my mind:
‘“ Although God is all-powerful, it is impossible
for Him to condemn to eternal perdition a soul
whose will, at the moment of its leaving the body,
is subject to, and united with, His own.”
Upon LENGTH OF LIFE.
Judging from outward appearances, from the
vigour of his frame, from his sound constitution,
and from the temperate simplicity of his manner
of life, it seemed probable that Blessed Francis
wouid live to an advanced age.
One day I said as much to him, he being at that
time about forty-two or forty-three years old.
“ Ah!” he replied with a sigh, ‘‘ the longest life
Upon Length of Infe 359
is not always the best. The best is that which has
been best spent in the service of God,’’ adding
these words of David: Woe is me that my sojourn-
ing is prolonged; I have dwelt with the inhabitants
of Cedar, my soul hath been long a sojourner.*
I thought he was secretly grieving over his banish-
ment from his See, his beloved Geneva (he always
called it thus), wrapped in the darkness of error,
and I quoted to him the words: Upon the rivers
of Babylon there we sat, and wept.t
“Oh! no,’’ he answered, ‘‘it is not that exile
which troubles me. I am only too well off in our
city of refuge, this dear Annecy. I meant the
exile of this life on earth. As long as we are here
below are we not exiled from God? While we
are in the body we are absent from the Lord.t
Unhappy man that I am! Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? The grace of God by
Jesus Christ.§
I ventured in reply to remind him how much
he had to make his life happy: how his friends
esteemed him, how even the very enemies of
religion honoured him, how all who came in contact
with him delighted in his society.
** All that,” he answered, ‘“‘ is beneath centempt.
Those who had sung Hosanna to the Sor of God
three days later cried out Crucifige. Such things
do not make my life any dearer to me. If I were
told that I should live as long again as I have
already done, and that without pain, without law-
suits, without trouble, or inconveniences of any
kind, but with all the content and prosperity men
*Psalm cxix. *+Psalm cxxxvi. f.
t2 Cor. v. 6. §Rom. vil. 24-25.
360 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
desire in life, I should be sadly disturbed in mind!
Of what small account are not the things of time
to him who is looking forward to a blessed Eter-
nity! I have always praised the words of the
Blessed Ignatius de Loyola, ‘Oh! how vile and
mean earth appears to me when I meditate upon
and look up to heaven.’ ”’
Upon PURGATORY.
Concerning Purgatory, St. Francis used to say
that in the controversy with Protestants there was
no point on which the Church could support her
doctrine by so many proofs, drawn both from the
Scriptures and from the Fathers and Councils, as
on this. He blamed those who oppose the doctrine
for their lack of piety towards the dead. On the
other hand, he reproved those Catholic preachers
who, when speaking of Purgatory and of the pains
and torments suffered there by the holy souls, do
not at the same time enlarge upon their perfect love
of God, and consequent entire satisfaction in the
accomplishment of His will, with which their own
will is so indissolubly united, that they cannot pos-
sibly feel the slightest movement of impatience or
irritation. Norcan they desire to be anywhere but
where they are, were it even till the consummation
of all things, if such should be God’s good pleasure.
On this subject he recommended the careful study
of the Treatise on Purgatory, written by blessed
Catherine of Genoa. By his advice J read the book
with attention, and have often re-read it, always
with fresh relish and profit. I have even invited
Protestants to read it, and they have been quite
satished by it. One young convert admitted that
Upon Purgatory 361
had he seen this Treatise before his conversion it
would have helped him more than all the discussions
into which the subject had led him.
St. Francis was of opinion that the thought of
Purgatory ought rather to comfort than to terrify.
“The majority of those,” he used to say, “who
dread Purgatory do so in view of their own interests,
and out of self-love, rather than for God’s interests.
The cause of this is that those who preach on the
subject are in the habit of depicting only the pains
of that prison, and say not a word on the joy and
peace which the souls therein detained enjoy. It is
true that the torments of Purgatory are so great that
the most acute sufferings of this life cannot be com-
pared with them; but, then, on the other hand, the
inward satisfaction of the sufferers is such that no
amount of earthly prosperity or contentment can
equal it. 1°. The souls who are waiting there enjoy
a continual union with God. 2°. Their wills are in
perfect subjection to His will; or, to speak more
correctly, their wills are so absolutely transformed
into the will of God that they cannot will anything
but what He wills. 3°. If Paradise were open to
them, they would rather cast themselves down into
hell than appear before God stained and defiled as
they see themselves still to be. 4°. They accept
their Purgatory lovingly and willingly, because it
is the good pleasure of God. 5°. They wish to
be there, in the manner in which it pleases God
that they should be, and for as long as He wills.
6°. They cannot sin. 7°. They cannot feel the
slightest movement of impatience. 8°. Nor be
guilty of the smallest imperfection. 9°. They love
God more than themselves and more than any other
362 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
creature, and with a perfect, pure, and disinterested
love. 10°. They are in Purgatory consoled by the
angels. 11°. They are secure of their salvation.
12°. They are in a state of hope, which cannot but
be realized. 13°. Their grief is holy andcaim. 14°.
In short, if Purgatory is a species of hell as regards
suffering, it is a species of Paradise as regards
charity. The charity which quickens those holy
souls 1s stronger than death, more powerful than
hell; its lamps are all of fire and flame. Neither
servile fear nor mercenary hope has any part in
their pure affection. Purgatory is a happy state,
more to be desired than dreaded, for all its flames
are flames of love and sweetness. Yet still it is to
be dreaded, since it delays the end of all perfection,
which consists in seeing God, and therefore fully
loving Him, and by this sight and by this love
praising and glorifying Him through all eternity.”
Upon PENANCE.
He compared penance to an almond tree, not only
in allusion to the word amendment and the expres-
sion, amend your ways, both of which in the French
language resemble in sound the word almond, but
by a very ingenious comparison.
“The almond tree,” he said, ‘‘ has its blossom
of five petals, which as regards number bear some
resemblance to the five fingers of the hand, its
leaves are in the shape of a tongue, and its fruit
of a heart. Thus the Sacrament of Penance has
three parts which make up its whole. The first
which concerns the heart is contrition, of which
David says that God heals those wno are contrite
Upon Penance 363
of heart,* and that He does not despise the humble
and contrite heart.t
The second, which concerns the tongue, is con-
fession. The third, which regards the hand, that
is to say, the doing of good works, is satisfaction.
Moreover,” he went on to say, ‘‘as there are
almonds of two kinds, the one sweet, the other
bitter, which being mixed make a pleasant flavour,
agreeable to the palate, so also in penance there is
a certain blending of sweetness and bitterness, of
consolation and pain, of love and regret, resembling
in taste the pomegranate, which has a certain sharp
sweetness and a certain sweet sharpness far more
agreeable than either sharpness or sweetness sepa-
rately. Penance which had only the sweetness of
consolation would not be a cleansing hyssop, power-
ful to purge away the stains of iniquity. Nor, if it
had only the bitterness of regret and sorrow, with-
cut the sweetness of love, could it ever Jead us to
that justification which is only perfected by a loving
displeasure at having offended the Eternal,
Supreme, and Sovereign Goodness.”’
Our Blessed Father treats of this mingling of love
and sorrow proper to true penitence with so much
grace and gravity in his Theotimus that I think
nothing grander or sweeter could be written on the
subject. Here is an extract. ‘‘ Amidst the tribu-
lation and remorse of a lively repentance God often
kindles at the bottom of our heart the sacred fire of
His love; this love is converted into the water of
tears, then by a second change into another and
greater fire of love. Thus the penitent Magdalen,
the great lover, first loved her Saviour; her love was
"Psalm cxlvi. 3. TPsalm l. 19.
364 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
converted into tears, and these tears into an excel-
lent love; whence our Saviour told her that many
sins were pardoned her because she had loved
much. The beginning of perfect love not only
follows upon penitence, but clings to it and knits
itself to it; in one word, this beginning of love
mingles itself with the end of penitence, and in this
moment of mingling penitence and contrition merit
life everlasting.’’*
Upon PENITENT CONFUSION.
Our Blessed Father had a wonderful aptitude for
distinguishing between what was real and genuine
and what was false in the shame manifested by his
penitents. He used to say that when this confusion
was full of trouble and agitation it proceeded from
self-love, from vexation and shame at having to own
our sins and imperfections, not from the spirit of
God. This he expresses in his second Conference
in these words:
‘“We must never suffer our confusion to be
attended with sadness and disquietude; that kind
of confusion proceeds from self-love, because we are
troubled at not being perfect, not so much for the
love of God as for love of ourselves.’’ An extract
from Theotimus will close this subject most suit-
ably :
‘“ Remorse which positively excludes the love
of God is infernal, it is like that of the lost. Repen-
tance which does not regret the love of God, even
though as yet it is without it, is good and desirable,
but imperfect: it can never save us until it attains to
love, and is mingled with it. So that, as the great
Love of God. Book II. c. 20.
Upon Interior Peace Amidst Anaieties 365
Apostle said, even if he gave his body to be burned,
and all his goods to the poor, and had not charity it
would all be of no avail; we, too, may say with
truth, that, however great our penitence may be,
even though it make our eyes overflow with tears of
sorrow, and our hearts to break with remorse, still
if we have not the holy love of God it will serve us
nothing as regards eternal life.’’*
Upon INTERIOR PEACE AMIDST ANXIETIES.
It isa great mistake when souls, in other respects
good and pious, imagine that it is impossible to
preserve inward peace amid bustle and turmoil.
There are some even, strange to say, who though
dedicated to God by their holy calling, complain if
they are employed by their community in laborious
and troublesome offices, calling them distracting
functions and occupations. Assuredly, these good
people know not what they say, any more than did
St. Peter on Mount Thabor.
What do they mean by distracting occupations ?
Possibly those which separate us from God? I
know nothing which can separate us from His love
except sin, which ts that labour in brick and clay in
which the infernal Pharaoh, tyrant of souls, and
king over the children of pride, employs his un-
happy subjects. These are the strange gods who
give no rest either by night or by day. But with
that exception, I know of no legitimate occupation
which can either separate us from God, or, still
more, which cannot serve as a means to unite us
to Him. This may be said of all callings, of those
of soldiers, lawyers, merchants, artisans.
* Book ii. c. 10.
866 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Our Blessed Father devotes two chapters in his
Theotimus to this subject, but he speaks even more
explicitly upon it in one of his letters, in which he
says: ‘‘ Let us all belong wholly to God, even amid
the tumult and disturbance stirred up round about
us by the diversity of human affairs. When can
we give better proof of our fidelity than amid con-
trarieties. Alas! my dearest daughter, my sister,
solitude has its assaults, the world has its disorder
and uproar; yet in either we must be of good
heart, since everywhere heaven is close to those who
have confidence in God, and who with humility and
gentleness implore His fatherly assistance. Beware
of letting your carefulness degenerate into trouble
and anxiety.”
‘‘ Tossed about upon the waves and amid the
winds of many a tumult, always look up to heaven,
and say to our Lord: ‘O God, it is for Thee that I
set my sails and plough the seas; be Thou my guide
and my pilot!’ And then console yourself by
remembering that when we are in port the joys
which will be ours will blot out all remembrance
of our toils and struggles to reach it. Weare now
voyaging thither in the midst of all these storms,
and shall safely reach our harbour if only we have
an upright heart, a good intention, firm courage,
eyes fixed on God, and place all our confidence in
Him. If the violence of the tempest makes our
head dizzy, and we feel shaken and sick, do not let
us be surprised, but, as quickly as we can, let us
take breath again, and encourage ourselves to do
better. I feel quite sure that you are not forgetful
of your good resolutions as you pursue your way;
do not then distress yourself about these little
Upon Discouragement 367
attacks of anxiety, and vexation, caused by the mul-
tiplicity of domestic affairs. Nay, my dear daugh-
ter, all this tumult gives you opportunities of prac-
tising the dearest and most lovable of the virtues
recommended to you by our Lord. Believe me, true
virtue is not nourished in external calm any more
than are good fish found in the stagnant waters of
the marshes.”’
Upon DISCOURAGEMENT.
Our Blessed Father used to say that the most
cowardly of all temptations was discouragement.
When the enemy of our salvation makes us lose
hope of ever advancing in virtue he has gained a
great advantage over us, and may very soon succeed
in thrusting us down into the abyss of vice. Those
who fly into a passion at the sight of their own im-
perfections are like people who want to strike and
bruise their own faces, because they are not hand-
some enough to please their self-love. They only
hurt themselves the more.
The holy Bishop wishing to correct this fault in
one of his penitents said to her: ‘‘ Have patience
with every one, but especially with yourself. I
mean, do not be over-troubled about your imper-
fections, but always have courage enough at once
to rise up again when you fall into any of them.
I am very glad to hear that you begin afresh every
day. There is no better means for persevering in
the spiritual life than continually to be beginning
again, and never to think that one has done
enough.”’
On these words we may make the following
reflections:
1. How shall we patiently suffer the faults of our
368 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
neighbour if we are impatient over our own?
2. How shall we reprove others in a spirit of
gentleness if we correct ourselves with irritation,
with disgust, and with unreasonable sharpness?
What can come out of a bag but what is in it?
3. Those who fret impatiently over their own
imperfections will never correct themselves of them,
for correction, if it is to be of use, must proceed from
a tranquil, restful mind. Cowardice, says David,
is the companion of trouble and tempest.
4. He who has lost courage has lost everything,
he who has thrown up the game can never win, nor
can the soldier who has thrown away his arms
return to the fight, however much he may want
to do. |
5. David said: I waited for him that saved me
from pusillanimity and a storm. He who believes
himself to be far advanced in the ways of God has
not yet even made a good beginning.
6. St. Paul, who had been raised to the third
heaven, who had fought so many good fights, run
so many splendid races, and had kept the Faith
inviolate, in spite of all, never thought that he had
finished his work, or reached the goal, but always
pressed forward as though he had but just begun.*
7. This mortal life is but a road leading to heaven.
It is a road to which we must steadily keep. He
who stops short in it runs the risk of not reaching
safely the presence of God in which it ends. He
who says, I have enough, thereby shows that he has
not enough; for in spiritual things sufficiency im-
plies the desire for more.
tio Cor. Bid. Zaks
Upon Rising After a Fall 369
Upon RISING AFTER A FALL.
Our Blessed Father was a great enemy to hurry
and over-eagerness, even in rising up again after a
fall.
He used to say that if our act of contrition is
more hurried than humble we are very likely to
fall again soon, and that this second fall will be
worse than the first.
As he considered our penitence incomplete with-
out an act of the love of God, so also he maintained
recovery from a fall to be imperfect if not accom-
panied by tranquillity and peace. He wished us to
correct ourselves, as well as others, in a spirit of
sweetness. Here is the advice which he gives on
the subject.
““ When we happen to fall from some sudden out-
burst of self-love, or of passion, let us as soon as
possible prostrate ourselves in spirit before God,
saying, with confidence and humility : Have mercy
on me, O Lord, for I am weak. Let us rise again
with peace and tranquillity and knot up again our
network of holy indifference, then go on with our
work. When we discover that our lute is out of
tune, we must neither break the strings nor throw
the instrument aside; but listen attentively to find
out what is the cause of the discord, and then
gently tighten or slacken the strings, according to
what is required.”
To those who replied to him that we ought to
judge ourselves with severity, ne said: “ It is true
that with regard to ourselves we ought to have the
heart of a judge, but as the judge who hastily, or
under the influence of passion. pronounces sen-
AA
370 The Spit of St. Francs De Sales
tence, runs the risk of committing an injustice, but
not so when reason is master of his actions and
behaviour, we must, in order to judge ourselves with
equity, do so with a gentle, peacefui mind, not in a
fit of anger, nor when so troubled as hardly to know
what we are doing.”
Upon KINDLINESS TOWARDS OURSELVES.
Since the measure and the model of the love which
God commands us to bear towards our neighbour
ought to be the just and christian love which we
should bear towards ourselves, and as charity, which
is patient and kind, obliges us to correct our neigh-
bours’ faults with gentleness and sweetness, our
Blessed Father did not consider it right that we
should correct ourselves in a manner different from
this, nor be harsh and severe with ourselves because
of our falls and ill-doings. In one of his letters he
wrote as follows: “ When we have committed a
fault, let us at once examine our heart and ask it
whether it does not still preserve living and entire
the resolution te serve God. It will, I hope,
answer yes, and that it would rather die a thousand
deaths than give up this resolution. Let us go on
to ask it further. Why, then, are you stumbling
now? Why are you so cowardly? It will reply.
I was taken by surprise: I know not how; but I
am tolerably firm now. Ah! my dear daughter, we
must pardon it; it was not from infidelity, but from
infirmity that it failed. We must then correct our-
selves gently and quietly, and not irritate and dis-
turb ourselves still more. Rise up, my heart, my
friend, we should say to ourselves, and lift up our
thoughts to our Help, and our God.
Upon Kindliness Towards Ourselves 371
Yes, my dear daughter, we must be charitable
to our own soul, and not rebuke it over harshly
when we see that the fault it has committed was not
fully wilful.”
Moreover, he would not have us accuse ourselves
over-vehemently and exaggerate our faults. At the
same time, he had no desire that in regard to our-
selves we should err on the side of leniency. He
wanted us to embrace the happy medium, by humi-
liating without discouraging ourselves, and by
encouraging ourselves with humility. In another
letter he says: ‘* Be just, neither accuse nor excuse
your poor soul, except after much consideration, for
fear lest if you excuse yourself when you should not,
you become careless, and if you accuse yourself
without cause, you discourage yourself and become
cowardly. Walk simply and you will walk
securely.”
UPON IMPERFECTIONS.
‘‘ Some people have so high an opinion of their
own perfection that should they discover any fail-
ings or imperfections in themselves thev are thrown
into despair. They are like people so anxious about
their health that the slightest illness alarms them,
and who take so many precautions to preserve this
precious health that in the end they ruin it.”
Our Blessed Father wished us to profit, not only
by our tribulations, but also by our imperfections,
and that these latter should serve to establish and
settle us in a courageous humility, and make us
hope, even against hope, and in spite of the most
discouraging appearances. ‘‘In this way,” he
said, ‘‘ we draw our healing and help from the very
hand of our adversaries.”
372 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
To a person who was troubled at her imperfec-
tions, he wrote thus: ‘‘ We should, indeed, like
to be without imperfections, but, my dearest daugh-
ter, we must submit patiently to the trial of having
a human, rather than an angelic, nature. Our im-
peifections ought not, indeed, to please us; on the
contrary, we should say with the holy Apostle:
Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death!* But, at the same
time, they ought not to astonish us, nor to dis-
courage us: we should draw from them submission,
humility, and mistrust of ourselves; never discour-
agement and loss of heart, far less distrust of God’s
love for us; for though He loves not our imperfec-
tions and venial sins, He loves us, in spite of them.
The weakness and backwardness of a child dis-
pleases its mother, but she does not for that reason
love it less. On the contrary, she loves it more
fondly, because she compassionates it. So, too, is
it with God, who cannot, as I have said, love our
imperfections and venial sins, but never ceases to
love us, so that David with reason cries out to Him:
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.” t}
THE Just MAN FALLS SEVEN TIMES IN THE Day.
A good man meditating upon this passage, and
taking it too literally, fell into a perfect agony,
saying to himself: ‘““ Alas! how many times a day,
then, must not I, who am not just, fall?” Yet
during his evening examination of conscience, how-
ever closely and carefully he searched, and however
much he was on the watch during the day to observe
his tailings and faults, he sometimes could not make
* Rom. vii. 24. t+ Psalm vi. 3.
The Just Man Falls Seven Times, £c. 373
up the number. Greatly troubled and perplexed
about this, he carried his difficulties to our Blessed
Father, who settled them in this way:
“In the passage which you have quoted,” he
said, ‘‘ we are not told that the just man sees or
feels himself fall seven times a day, but only that
he does fall seven times, and that he raises himself
up again without paying any heed to his so doing.
Do not then distress yourself; humbly and frankly
confess what you have observed of faulty in your-
self, and what you do not see, leave to the sweet
mercy of Him who puts out His hand to prevent
those who fall without malice, from being jarred or
bruised against the hard ground; and who raises
them up again so quickly and gently that they never
notice it nor are conscicus of having so much as
fallen.”
The great imperfection of most of us proceeds
from want of reflection, but, on the other hand,
there are many who think overmuch, who fall into
the mistake of too close self-inspection, and who are
perpetually fretting over their failings and weak-
nesses.
Blessed Francis writes again on the subject: ‘‘ It
is quite certain that as long as we are imprisoned
in this heavy and corruptible body there will always
be something wanting in us. I do not know
whether I have already told you that we must have
patience with every one; and, first of all, with our-
selves. For since we have learnt to distinguish
between the old Adam and the new, between the
outward man and the inward, we are really more
troublesome to ourselves than any of our neigh-
bours.”
874 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
UPON THE PURGATIVE Way.
Of the three ways leading to perfection the first
is called the puryative, and consists in the purifying
of the soul; from which, as from a piece of waste
ground, we must take away the brambles and
thorns of sin before planting there trees which
shall bear good fruit. This purgation has, how-
ever, two different stages; that which precedes the
justification of the soul, and that which follows it.
This latter may again be subdivided into two parts.
There is not only the freeing of the soul from sin,
whether mortal or venial, but there is also its
purgation from any inclination or attachment to
either the one or the other.
It is not enough to be purged from deadly sin;
we must labour incessantly to rid ourselves of any
love, however slight, of the sin from which we
have been cleansed, otherwise we shall be only too
likely to fall back into it again. It is the same as
regards venial sins. Our Blessed Father speaks of
this purgative way in his Philothea as follows:
“ We can never be wholly pure from venial sins,
at least, never for any continuous length of time,
but we can and may get rid of any sort of affection
for these lesser faults. Assuredly it is one thing to
tell falsehoods once or twice, lightly and thought-
lessly, and in matters of small importance; and
another to take delight in lying and to cling fondly
to this sort of sin.’’*
Besides venial sins, there are certain natural
propensities and inclinations which are called
imperfections, since they tend towards evil, and, if
* Part i. chap. 22.
Upon the Purgatwe Way 375
unchecked, lead to excesses of various kinds. They
are not, properly speaking, sins, either mortal or
venial; nevertheless they are true failings and
defects of which we must endeavour to correct
ourselves, inasmuch as they are displeasing both
to God and man. Such are propensities to anger,
grief, joy, excessive laughter, flattery, favouritism,
self-pity, suspicion, over-eagerness, precipitancy,
and vain affections. We must strive to rid
ourselves of those defects which, like weeds, spring
up without being sown in the soil of our corrupt
nature, and incline us to evil from our birth.
The means of getting rid of all these evils, whether
mortal sins, venial ones, imperfections, or attach-
ment to any or all of these, you will find most clearly
set forth by our Blessed Father in the same book.*
I once asked him what was the true difference
between venial sin and imperfection, and I will
try to recall his teaching on the subject that I may
impart it to you. Every venial sin is an imper-
fection, but every imperfection is not a venial sin.
In sin there is always malice, and malice is in the
will, hence the maxim that nothing involuntary is
sin; and according to the degree of this malice,
whether great or small, and according to the
matter on which it is exercised, the sin is either
mortal or venial.
You ask me if imperfections are matters sufficient
for confession, as well as venial sin. Our Blessed
Father considered that it was well to accuse
ourselves of them in order to learn from the con-
fessor how to correct ourselves of and get rid of
them. He did not, however, think them sufficient
* Part i chaps. 6,7; 22; 234 24.
376 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
matter for the Sacrament, and for this reason when
his penitents only told him of imperfections he
would make them add some venial sin committed
in the past, so as to furnish sufficient matter for
absolution. I say sufficient, but not absolutely
necessary matter, for it is only mortal sin that has
these two qualities.
UPON VENIAL SIN.
He compares venial sin to the diamond which
was thought by its presence to prevent the loadstone
from attracting iron. A soul attached to venial
sin is retarded in its progress in the path of justice,
but when the hindrance is removed God dilates the
heart and makes it to run in the way of His com-
mandments.
You ask me if a great number of venial sins can
ever make up a mortal one, and consequently cause
us to lose the grace of God.
No, indeed! Not all the venial sins which ever
existed could make one mortal sin: but neverthe-
less, not many venial sins are needed to dispose us
to commit a mortal one, as it is written that he
that contemneth small things shall fall by little
and little,* and that he who loves danger shall
perish in it.
For, according to the maxim of St. Bernard,
received by all spiritual writers, not to advance in
the way of God is to fall back, not to sow with
Him is to scatter, not to gather up is to lose, not
to build is to pull down, not to be for God is to
be against Him, not to reap with Him is to lay
waste. Now to commit a venial sin is essentially
*hedleMiinag,, “Tide. 77.
Upon Vernal San. 377
a not working with God, though it may not be a
positive working against Him.
“Charity,” says our Blessed Father, ‘‘ being
an active quality cannot be long without either
acting or dying: it is, say the early Fathers,
symbolized by Rachel. Give me children, she
said to her husband, otherwise I shall die.* Thus
charity urges the heart which she has espoused to
make her fertile in good works; otherwise she will
perish.”
Venial sin, especially when the soul clings to it,
makes us run the risk of losing charity, because
it exposes us to the danger of committing mortal
sin, by which alone charity is driven forth and
banished from the soul. On this subject our
Blessed Father, in the chapter from which we have
already quoted, speaks as follows: ‘“‘ Neither venial
sin, nor even the affection to it, is contrary to the
essential resolution of charity, which is to prefer
God before all things; because by this sin we love
something outside reason but not against reason.
We make too much and more than is fit of creatures,
yet we do not positively prefer them before the
Creator. We occupy ourselves more than we ought
in earthly things; yet we do not, for all that,
forsake heavenly things.
In fine, venial sin impedes us in the way of
charity, but does not put us out of it, and, therefore,
venial sin, not being contrary to charity, never
destroys charity either wholly or partially.”
Further on he says: ‘‘ However, venial sin is sin,
and consequently it troubles charity, not as a thing
that is contrary to charity itself, but as being
* The Love of God. Book iv. chap. 2.
378 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
contrary to its operations and progress and even to
its intention. For, as this intention is that we should
direct all our actions to God, it is violated by
venial sin, which is the referring of an action to
something outside of God and of the divine will.”
UPON COMPLICITY IN THE SINS OF ANOTHER.
There are some scrupulous minds which are
perplexed by everything and frightened at shadows.
In conversation, and in mixing with others, a faulty
word which they may hear or a reprehensible action
they may witness, however much they may in their
secret hearts detest it, is at once charged upon
their own conscience as a partaking in the sins of
others.
They are also troubled with doubts, and are
uncertain whether it is their duty or not to denounce
the faults of their neighbour, to express their own
disapproval, and to rebuke the offender. Toa soul
perplexed on this subject our Blessed Father gives
the following wholesome advice: “‘ As regards
conversation, my dear daughter, do not worry
about anything said or done by others. If good,
you can praise God for it, if evil, it will furnish
you with an opportunity of serving God by turning
away your thoughts from it, showing neither
surprise nor irritation, since you are not a person
of sufficient importance to be able to put a stop to
bad or idle talk. Indeed, any attempt on your
part to do so would make things worse. Acting as
as I bid you to do you will remain unharmed amid
the hissing of serpents and, like the strawberry, will
not assimilate their poison even though licked by
their venomous tongues.”’
Upon Equivocating. 379
Upon EQUIVOCATING.
Our Saint used to say that to equivocate was, in
his opinion, to canonize lying, and that simplicity
was, after all, the best kind of shrewdness. The
children of darkness, he said, use cunning and
artifice in their dealings with one another, but the
children of God should take for their motto the
words: He that walketh sincerely walketh con-
fidently.
Duplicity, simulation, insincerity always betray
alow mind. If, in the language of the wise man,
the lips that lie kill the soul, what can be the effect
of the conversation of one who habitually speaks
with a double heart ?*
Upon SOLITUDE.
Some one was praising country life, and calling
it holy and innocent.
Blessed Francis replied that country life has draw-
backs just as city life has, and that as there is both
good and bad company, so there is also good and
bad solitude. Good, when God calls us into it, as
He says by a prophet, I will lead her into the
wilderness and I will Speak to her heart.t Bad,
when it is of that kind of which it is written, Woe
to him that is alone.t
As regards holiness and innocence, he said that
country folk were certainly far from being, as a
matter of course, endowed with these good quali-
ties.
*Psalm xii. 3.
Osee ii. 14. Eccle. iv. ro.
880 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
As for temptations and occasions of sin, he said:
‘“ There are evil spirits who go to and fro in desert
places quite as much as in cities; if grace does not
hold us up everywhere, everywhere we may stumble.
Lot, who in the most wicked of all cities was holy
and just, when in solitude fell into the most
dreadful of sins. Mencarry themselves about with
them and find themselves everywhere, and frailty
can no more be got rid of by them than can the
shadow by the body that casts it.
Many deceive themselves greatly and become
their own seducers by imagining that they possess
those virtues, the sins contrary to which they do
not commit. The absence of a vice and the
possession of its contrary virtue are very different
things.
To be without folly is, indeed, to have the
beginning of wisdom, but it is a beginning so feeble
as by itself scarcely to deserve the name of wisdom.
Abstaining from evil is a very different thing
from doing good, although this abstaining is of
itself a species of good: it is like the plan of a
building compared with the building itself. Virtue
does not consist so much in habit as in action.
Habit is in itself an indolent sort of quality, which,
indeed, inclines us to do good, but does no more,
unless inclination be followed by action.
How shall he who has no one in command set over
him learn obedience? He who is never contra-
dicted, patience? He who has no superior,
humility? And how shall he who, like a
misanthrope, flies from intercourse with other men,
notwithstanding that he is obliged to love them as
himself, how shall he, I say, learn brotherly love?
Upon Vanity 381
There are many virtues which cannot be practised
in solitude; above all, mercy, upon the exercise of
which we shall be questioned and judged at the last
day; and of which it is said: Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.*
Upon VANITY.
It is a vanity of the understanding to think
ourselves more than we really are; but it is a far
more dangerous vanity of the will to aspire to a
condition higher than our own, and to persuade
ourselves that we are deserving of it. He who
thinks himself to be more than he is has in his
mind some picture of content and satisfaction, and
consequently some sort of tranquillity like one who
finds his peace and repose in his riches.
But he who aspires to a condition more exalted
than his own is in a constant state of disquietude,
like the needle of the compass which trembles
incessantly until it points to the north. An ancient
proverb makes the happiness of this life to consist
in wishing to be what we are and nothing more.
Quod sis esse velis, nihilque malis.
Blessed Francis who, in his own opinion, had
already risen too high in the hierarchy of the
Church, turned his thoughts rather to giving up
his dignities than to seeking promotion. He
looked forward to the calm retreat of solitude
rather than the dignity of illustrious offices.
He was even apprehensive of the high esteem in
which he knew that he was held, dreading lest he
should be less the servant of God for thus delighting
men.
rratt. V. 7
392 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
On one occasion some worthy soul having
warned him to keep humble amid the praises and
acclamations bestowed on him, he answered:
“You please me greatly by recommending holy
humility to me, for, do you know, when the wind
gets imprisoned in our valleys, among our moun-
tains, even the little flowers are beaten down and
the trees are uprooted. I am situated rather high
up and, in my post of Bishop, am tossed about
most of all. O Lord! save us: command these
winds of vanity to cease to blow and there will be
a great calm. Stand firm, O my soul, and clasp
very tightly the foot of our Saviour’s holy Cross:
the rain which falls there in plenteous showers on
all sides stills the wind, however violent it may be.
When I am there, O my God, as I sometimes
am, how sheltered is my soul, and how refreshed
by that crimson dew! but no sooner have I moved
a single step away than the wind again takes me
off my feet!”
UPON THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH PuFFs UP.
You wish to know what St. Paul means when he
says that knowledge puffs up and that charity
edifies.* I imagine he means by the knowledge
which puffs up, that which is destitute of charity
and which consequently tends only to vanity.
All those are vain, say the sacred Scriptures, who
have not the knowledge of God;+ and what is this
knowledge of God if not the knowledge of His
ways and of His will? It is the God of knowledge
who teaches this knowledge to men; the science of
the saints, the science which makes saints,
*ī Cor. viii. r. tSap. xiii. 1.
Upon the Knowledge which Puffs Up 383
the science of salvation, a science without
which all else is absolute ignorance. He who
thinks that he knows something and does not know
how to save his soul, does not yet know what it is
most important to know. Those who know many
things without knowing themselves, and without
knowing God in the manner in which even in this
present life he can be known and desires to be
known, resemble the giants in the fable, who piled
up mountains and then buried themselves beneath
them.
Do not, however, think for a moment that, in
order to save our souls, or to be truly devout, we
must be ignorant; for, as sugar spoils no sauce,
true knowledge is in no wise opposed to devotion.
On the contrary, by enlightening the understanding
it contributes much to fervour in the will. Listen
to what our Blessed Father says on this subject in
his Theotimus: ‘‘ Knowledge is not of itself
contrary, but very useful to devotion. Meeting,
they should marvellously assist one another;
though it too often happens through our misery
that knowledge hinders the birth of devotion,
because knowledge puffeth wp and makes us proud,
and pride, which is contrary to all virtue, ruins
all devotion. Without doubt, the eminent science
of a Cyprian, an Augustine, a Hilary, a
Chrysostom, a Basil, a Gregory, a Bonaventure,
a Thomas, not only taught these Saints to value,
but greatly enhanced their devotion; as again, their
devotion not only supernaturalized, but eminently
perfected their knowledge.’’*
“Book vi} chapra
384 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Upon SCRUPLES.
it was Blessed Francis’ opinion that scruples
have their origin in a cunning self-esteem. I
call it cunning because it is so subtle and crafty
as to deceive even those who are troubled by it.
As a proof of this assertion he evidenced the fact
that ‘‘ those who suffer from this malady will not
acquiesce in the judgment of their directors, however
discreet and enlightened in the ways of God they
may be; obstinately clinging to their own opinions
instead of, by humble submission, accepting the
remedies and consequent peace offered to them.
Who can wonder at the prolonged sufferings of the
sick man who resolutely refuses every salutary
remedy which he is entreated to take? Who will
pity one who suffers himself to die of hunger and
thirst, although everything that could satisfy the
one and quench the other be placed within his
reach ?
Holy Scripture teaches us that the crime of
disobedience is equal in guilt to that of idolatry
and witchcraft. But what shall we say of the
disobedience of the scrupulous, who so idolize their
own opinions as to be absolutely slaves to them,
and whom no sort of remonstrance or reasoning
will convince of the idleness of their unfounded
fears.
They will tell you, in answer to your judicious
and soothing arguments, that you are only flattering
them, that they are misunderstood, that they do not
explain themselves clearly, and so on.
This is, indeed, a malady difficult of cure, be-
cause, like jealousy, its fires are fed by everything
with which it comes in contact. May God preserve
Upon Temptations 385
you from this lingering and sad disease, which I
regard as the quartan fever or jaundice of the soul.”
Upon TEMPTATIONS.
‘If we only knew how to make a good use of
temptations,’’ said our Blessed Father, ‘‘ instead
of dreading, we should welcome them—lI had almost
said desire them. But because our weakness and
our cowardice are only too well known to us, from
our long experience, and from many sorrowful
falls, we have good reason to say, Lead us not inte
temptation.
If to this just mistrust of ourselves we united
confidence in God, who is stronge: to deliver us
from temptation than we are weak in falling into
it, our hopes would rise in proportion to the lessen-
ing of our fears. For by Thee I shall be delivered
from temptation, and through my God I shall go
over a wall,’’*
With such a support can we not boldly tread
upon the asp and the basilisk, and trample under
foot the lion and the dragon ?t As it is in tempta-
tion that we learn to know the greatness of our
courage and of our fidelity to God, so it is by
suffering temptation that we make progress
in strength of heart, and that we learn to
wield the weapons of our warfare, which are
spiritual against the spiritual malice of our
invisible enemies. Then it is that our soul, clothed
in the panoply of grace, appears terrible to them
as an army in battle array, and as the hosts of the
Lord.
*Psalm xxvi. 30. Psalm xc. 13.
BB
386 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Some think that all is lost when they are
tormented by thoughts of blasphemy and impiety,
and fancy that their faith is gone. Yet as long
as these thoughts merely distress them and they
are resisted, they cannot harm them, and such
stormy winds only serve to make souls become
more deeply rooted in faith. As much has to be
said of temptations against purity and other
virtues, for the maxim is quite a general one.
There is no good Christian who is not tempted.
The angel said to Tobias: Because thou wast
acceptable to God it was necessary that temptation
should prove thee.*
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
You ask me why God permits the enemy of our
salvation to afflict us with so many temptations,
which put us into such great danger of offending
God and losing our soul. I might answer you in
words from Holy Scripture, but I will give you
our Blesed Father’s teaching on the subject, which
is only an interpretation of what St. Paul and St.
James tell us in their epistles: ‘‘ Do you know,”
he says, ‘* what God does in temptation ?
He permits the evil one to furbish up his wares
and to offer them to us for sale, so that by the con-
tempt with which we look upon them we may show
our affection for divine things.
Must you then, my dear sister, my dearest
daughter, because of this temptation, fret and
disquiet yourself and change your manner of
thought ?
*Tob xii. 13.
Upon the same subject 387
Oh, no! by no means, it is the devil who
prowls round about your soul, peeping and prying
to see if he can find an open door. He did this
with Job, with St. Anthony, with St. Catherine of
Siena, and with an infinity of good souls whom I
know, as well as with my own, which is good-for-
nothing, and which I do not know. And have you,
my good daughter, to distress yourself about what
the devil attempts? Let him wait outside and
keep all the avenues of your soul fast shut. In
the end he will be tired out, or if not God will
force him to raise the siege.
Remember what I think I have told you before.
It is a good sign when the devil stirs up such a
tumult outside the fortress of your will, for it shows
he is not inside it.
One cause of our interior trouble and mental
disturbance is the difficulty we experience in
discerning whether a temptation comes from within
or from without, whether it is from our own heart
or from the enemy, who takes up his position as a
besieger before that heart? You may apply the
following test in order to find out.
Does the temptation please or displease you?
One of the ancient Fathers says that sins which
displease us cannot harm us. How much less then
displeasing temptations!
Notice that, as long as the temptation displeases
you there is nothing to fear, for why should it
displease if not because your will does not consent
to itg”
‘“ But,” you say, “‘if I, as it were, dally with the
temptation, either from inadvertence or torpor, or
slothful unwillingness to reject and repel it, is not
888 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
that in a way taking pleasure in it?” “The evil
of temptation is not measured by its duration: it
may be working against us all our life long, but
while it displeases us it cannot make us fall into
sin; on the contrary, being repulsive to us, this
very antipathy not only preserves us from being
infected by its venom, but adds strength to our
virtue and jewels to our crown.”
“But I am so much afraid of taking pleasure
init p
“ That very fear is a proof that it displeases you,
for we are not afraid of that which pleases us. We
are not terrified except by what displeases us, just
as we can only enjoy what is good or has the
appearance of being good.
‘“ If you were able all the time to look upon
temptation as an evil it cannot have pleased you.”
‘Still, is it wrong to find pkeasure in thinking
of what is sinful?” ‘‘If this pleasure is felt
before we reflect that the thing is evil it is of no
consequence, since voluntary malice and consent
are needed to make this pleasure a sin.”
“ How shall we know whether or not we have
yielded this consent?’’ ‘‘ Assuredly, it is difficult
to define the nature of voluntary consent. This
difficulty gave rise to the saying of the Psalmist,
Who can understand sins ?*
‘* This, too, is why he prays to be delivered from
his secret faults, that is to say, from sins which he
cannot easily discern.”
I will, however, on this subject give you another
excellent lesson which I learned from our Blessed
Father.
*PSdlm iii. 13.
Thoughts on the Incarnation 389
“ When you are doubtful,” he said to me,
‘whether or not you have consented to evil, always
take the doubt for a negative, and for this reason.
A true and full consent of the will is necessary to
form a real grave sin, there being no sin in what
is not voluntary. Now full consent is so clear that
there can never be left in the mind a shadow of
doubt about its having taken place.”
This plain teaching surely cuts the gordian knot
of our perplexities.
THOUGHTS ON THE INCARNATION,
There are two opinions held by theologians on
the subject of the Incarnation. Some hold that had
Adam never sinned the Son of God would not
have become incarnate, others that the Incarnation
would have taken place even had our first parents
remained in the state of innocence and original
justice in which they were created. For, as they
urge, the Word was made flesh, not to merely be a
redeemer and restorer of the human race, but that
through Him God might be glorified. Our Blessed
Father held this second opinion, which he advanced,
`- not only in familiar conversation and in the pulpit,
but also in his writings. In his Theotimus he
expresses himself thus: ‘‘God knew from all
eternity that He could create an innumerable
multitude of beings with divers perfections and
qualities, to whom He might communicate Him-
self. And considering that amongst all the different
communications which were possible, none was so
excellent as that of uniting Himself to some created
nature, in such sort that the creature might be
engrafted and implanted in the Divinity, and be-
390 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
come one single person with it: His infinite good-
ness, which of itself and by itself tends towards com-
munication, resolved and determined to communi-
cate Himself in this manner. So that, as eternally
there is an essential communication in God, by
which the Father communicates all His infinite and
indivisible divinity to the Son in producing Him,
and the Father and the Son together producing the
Holy Ghost, communicate to Him also their own
singular divinity; so this sovereign sweetness was
so perfectly communicated externally to a creature
that the created nature and the divinity retaining
each of them its own properties were, notwithstand-
ing so united together that they were but one same
person. Now of all the creatures which that Sove-
reign Omnipotence could produce, He thought
good to make choice of human nature which
afterwards in effect was united to the person of God
the Son. He created it, and to it He destined the
incomparable honour of personal union with His
divine majesty, to the end that for all eternity it
might enjoy above all others the treasures of His
infinite glory.’’*
This thought has always pleased me exceedingly ;
this thought, I mean, of the communication of God,
in the worthiest manner possible, namely, through
the mystery of the Incarnation. But ah! What
shall we then say of the mystery of the most holy
Eucharist, which is, as it were, an extension of the
Incarnation! In the holy Eucharist the Son of
God, in His overflowing mercy, not content with
having made Himself the Son of Man, a sharer in
our humanity and our Brother, has invented a won-
*Book ii. chap. 4.
Thoughts on the Incarnation 391
drous way of communicating Himself to each one of
usin particular. By this He incorporates Himself
in us, and us in Him. He dwells in us, and makes
us dwell in Him, becoming our food and support,
flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, by a grace
which surpasses every other grace, since it contains
in itself the author of all grace! Truly, we possess
in this divine mystery, though veiled and hidden
under the sacramental species, Him whom the
angels desire to see, even while they see Him con-
tinually. Nor is there any difference between their
possession and ours, except in the manner in which
it is effected. For if they have the advantage of
sight, we have that of a closer intimacy, seeing that
He is only before them as the Beatific Vision, while
He is actually within us, as the living and life-
giving bread, a bread strengthening our heart, or,
rather, the very heart of our heart, or the soul of our
heart, or the heart of our soul. And if the heart of
the disciples of Emmaus burned within them when
He only spoke to them on their way, what ardour
should be kindled in our breasts by the receiving of
Him who came to bring the fire of divine love upon
earth, that it might inflame and kindle all hearts!
You ask me whether we are happier in having
been redeemed from that state of original sin into
which our first parents fell than had we been born
in the innocence which was theirs at their creation.
At first sight it would seem that never to have
been bound by the chain of misery and evil with
which the first sin of Adam fettered us would surely
have been more desirable than even to be loosed
from it by the divine goodness! This, however, is
a merely human judgment, revealed to us by flesh
392 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and blood. The light of faith, far brighter and
more ennobling, teaches us a sublimer lesson. This
is what our Blessed Father says on the subject:
‘“ Who can doubt of the abundance of the means
of salvation, since we have so great a Saviour, for
the sake of whom we have been made, and by whose
merits we have been ransomed. For He died for
all, because all were dead, and His mercy was more
far-reaching when He built up anew the race of
men than Adam’s misery when he ruined it.
‘Indeed, Adam’s sin was so far from quenching
God’s love for mankind, that, on the contrary, it
stirred it up, and invited it. So that by a most
sweet and loving re-action, love was quickened by
the presence of sin, and as if re-collecting its forces
for victory over evil, made grace to superabound
where sin had abounded,.* Whence, Holy Church,
in an excess of devout wonder, cries out (upon
Faster-eve), ‘O truly necessary sin of Adam, which
was blotted out by the death of Jesus Christ! O
happy fault which merited to have such and so great
a Redeemer!’ ‘Truly, Theotimus, we may say, as
did he of old, ‘ We were ruined, had we not been
undone; that is, ruin brought us profit, since in
effect human nature, through being redeemed by its
Saviour, has received more graces than ever it
would have received if Adam had remained inno-
cents ? 4
One of the marvels of divine Omnipotence is that
it knows by a secret power, reserved to itself alone,
how to draw good from evil, the contrary from the
contrary; water from fire, as in the furnace of the
three children ; and fire from water, as in the sacred
*Col. i. 16.
The Love of God. Book ii. c. 5. {Daniel iii. 50.
Thoughts on the Incarnation 393
fire which was found in a well, the thick water of
which was changed into fire. By this secret power
He makes all things work together for good to those
who love Him.
‘ Truly,” says our Blessed Father, in the same
place, ‘‘as the rainbow touching the thorn
aspalathus, makes it more odoriferous than the lily,
so our Saviour’s Redemption, touching our
miseries makes them more beneficial and worthy of
love than original innocence could ever have been.
I say to you, says our Saviour, there shall be joy
in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance;
more than upon ninety-nine just, who need not
penance,* and so the state of redemption is a
hundred times better than that of innocence.
Verily, by the watering of our Saviour’s Blood,
made with the hyssop of the Cross, we have been
re-clothed in a whiteness incomparably more
excellent than the snowy robe of innocence. We
come out, like Naaman, from the stream of salvation
more pure and clean than if we had never been
leprous, to the end that the divine majesty, as He
has ordained also for us, should not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil by good,t that mercy (as
a sacred oil) should keep itself above judgment, t
and God’s tender mercies be over all His works.’’§
Upon CONFESSION AND COMMUNION.
These two Sacraments were styled by Blessed
Francis the two poles of the christian life, because
around them that life ever revolves. One purifies
the soul, the other sanctifies it. He greatly
m #Luke xv. 7.
tRom. xii. fJames ii. 13. §Psalm cxliv. 9g.
394 The Spirt of St. Francis De Sales
admired the saying of St. Bernard that all the
spiritual good which we possess is derived from the
frequent use of the Sacraments. He would say that
those who neglect the Sacraments are not unlike
the people in the Parable, who would not accept
the invitation to the Marriage Feast, and who thus
incurred the wrath of the Lord who had prepared
it. Some plead as their excuse that they “‘ are not
good enough ’’; but how are they to become good
if they keep aloof from the source of all goodness?
Others say: ‘‘ We are too weak’’; but is not this
the Bread of the strong? Others: ‘We are
infirm ’’; but in this Sacrament have you not the
Good Physician Himself? Others: ‘‘ We are not
worthy ’’; but does not the Church direct that even
the holiest of men should not approach the Feast
without having on his lips the words: Lord! I am
not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof?
To those who plead that they are overwhelmed with
cares and with the business of this life, He cries:
Come to me all you that labour and are burdened
and I will refresh you.* If any fear to come lest
they should incur condemnation, are they not in
yet greater danger of being condemned for keeping
away? Indeed, the plea of humility is as false as
that of Achaz, who detracted from the glory of God
when he feigned to be afraid of tempting Him.
What better way of learning to receive Him well
can there be than receiving Him often? Is it not
so with other acts which are perfected by frequent
repetition ?
He extolled highly the precept of St. Augustine
on this subject. It was his desire that any person
*Matt. xi. 28.
Upon Confession and Communion 395
(he was speaking of the laity) free from mortal sin,
and without any affection for it, should communi-
cate confidently yet humbly every Sunday,! if not
advised by his confessors to do so oftener. He
does not say ‘‘ anyone who is without venial sin,”
for from that who is exempt?
His sentiments with regard to Holy Communion
were most sweet and so tempered by divine love,
that reverent fear was in no way prejudicial to con-
fidence, neither was confidence to reverence. He
fervently desired that we should annihilate our-
selves when receiving the Blessed Sacrament, as
our Lord annihilated Himself in order to communi-
cate Himself to us, bowing down the heaven of
His greatness to accommodate and unite Himself
with our lowness.
But you will be better satisfied to hear his feelings
expressed in his own words.
They were addressed, not directly, but through
the medium of another, to a person, who from a
false idea of humility dared not approach this divine
mystery, and who, in the words but not in the spirit
of St. Peter, entreated her Saviour to depart from
Her.
“Tell her,” he says, ‘‘to communicate fear-
lessly, calmly, yet with all humility, in order to
correspond with the action of that Spouse who in
order to unite Himself with us annihilated Himself
and lovingly abased Himself to the extent even of
becoming our food and our pasturage; condescend-
ing thus to us who are the food and pasturage
of worms. Oh! my daughter, those who com-
1By the recent Decree of Pope Pius X., His Holiness
fea: that, with such dispositions, it should be daily.
[Ed
396 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
municate according to the spirit of the Heavenly
Bridegroom, annihilate themselves and say to our
Lord: feed on me, change me, annihilate me, con-
vert me into Thyself. There is nothing, I think, in
the world of which we have more absolute posses-
sion, or over which we have more entire dominion,
than over the food which, for our own self-preser-
vation, we annihilate.
Well, our Lord has condescended to this excess
of love, namely, to give Himself to us for our food;
and as for us, what ought not we to do in order
that He may possess us, that He may feed on us,
that He may make us what He pleases? ”’
Read what is said on this subject in the ‘‘ Devout
life’? and the ‘‘ Conferences.”
Upon CONFESSION. i
Our Blessed Father thought so much of frank-
ness, candour and ingenuousness in Confession,
that when he met with these virtues in his penitents
he was filled with joy and satisfaction.
It happened one day that he received a letter
from one of his spiritual daughters telling him that
she had been betrayed into the sin of malicious
envy (by which she meant jealousy) of one of her
sisters. He answered her letter as follows: ‘‘ I tell
you with truth that your letter has filled my soul
with so sweet a perfume, that I can affirm that I
have not for a long time read anything so consoling.
I repeat, my dear daughter, that this letter awakens
in me such fresh ardour of love towards God who
is so good, and towards you whom He desires to
make so good, that I can only make an act of
Upon a Change of Confessor 397
thanksgiving for this to His divine Providence.
Thus it is, my daughter, that we must always
without a moment’s hesitation thrust our hands
into the secret recesses of our hearts to tear out
the foul growths which have sprung up there, from
the mingling of our self-love with our humours,
inclinations, and antipathies. Oh, my God!
What satisfaction for the heart of a most loving
Father to hear a beloved daughter protest that she
has been envious and malicious! How blessed is
this envy, since it is followed by so frank a con-
fession! Your hand in writing your letter made a
stroke more valiant than ever did that of Alex-
ander! ”’
UPON A CHANGE OF CONFESSOR.
I have told you by word of mouth, and now I
repeat in writing, so that you may better remember
it, that the scruple of scruples is not to dare to
change one’s Confessor. The Priest who should
put this scruple into your head deserves to be left,
as himself scrupulous, and unsafe. Virtue, like
truth, is always to be found half way between two
faulty extremes. To be always changing one’s
Confessor, and never to dare to do so, or sooner to
omit Confession than to confess to any one but
our usual Confessor, are two blame-worthy
extremes.
In the one case we show ourselves volatile and ill-
balanced; in the other we are cowardly. If you
ask me which of the two is the more to be avoided
I should say the second, and this because it seems
to me to indicate a low tone of mind, human respect,
attachment to the creature, and in general a slavish
398 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
spirit which is quite contrary to the spirit of God,
who only dwells there, where there is perfect liberty.
St. Paul tells us that being redeemed by the
Precious Blood of Jesus Christ we ought not to
make ourselves slaves of men.
Possibly, however, you would more readily
submit your judgment to that of our Blessed Father
than to mine.
I remind you then how highly he thought of this
holy christian liberty. You may be quite sure
that he inculcated it on persons like yourself living
in the world since, as I am going to show you, he
made a great point of it with his Religious.
The Holy Council of Trent having decreed that
three or four times a year all nuns should have
extra-ordinary Confessors given to them to relieve
them from the yoke and constraint which might
ensue from being always under the direction of
one and the same ordinary Confessor, our Blessed
Father decreed that every three months, in the four
Ember weeks the Sisters of the Visitation, of which
Order he was the Founder, should have an Extra-
ordinary Confessor, carefully recommending to the
Superiors to ask for one even oftener for any Sisters
who might desire or really need his help.
Blessed Teresa’ was also very careful to ensure
to her Sisters this holy and reasonable liberty,
which renders the yoke of the Saviour sweet and
light as it should be, and her daughters, the
Carmelites, still value their privilege as she did.
Our Blessed Father used, moreover, to say that
Religious men to whom the direction of nuns was
entrusted, and all convents subject to their juris-
1St. Teresa was not then canonised. [Ed.]
Upon a Change of Confessor 399
diction, would do well to observe the excellent rule
and custom some of them have of never leaving a
Confessor for more than a year in a convent.
He added that Superiors should reserve to them-
selves the power of withdrawing Confessors even
before the time for which they were appointed had
expired, and indeed whenever it may please them,
and should not keep any Confessor longer than the
time for which he was appointed, unless for some
very urgent reason or pressing necessity.
To show you that it was not only to me that
our Blessed Father expressed his opinion on this
point, this is how he wrote about it to a Superior
of the Visitation.
“ We ought not to be so fickle as to wish without
any substantial reason to change our Confessor.
but, on the other hand, we should not be immovable
and persistent when legitimate causes make such
a change desirable, and Bishops should not so tie
their own hands as to be unable to effect the change
when expedient, and especially when either the
Sisters or the Spiritual Father desire it.”
Upon DIFFERENT METHODS OF DIRECTION.
In the year 1619 our Blessed Father went to
Paris where he remained for eight or nine months.
I was there at the same time, having been
summoned for the Advent and Lent sermons.
Many pious persons came to consult him on their
spiritual concerns, and thus gave him the oppor-
tunity of observing the variety of methods employed
by God to draw souls to Himself, and also the
different ways in which His Priests guide and direct
these same souls.
400 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Among others, he told me of two priests cele-
brated for their preaching, and who also applied
themselves most zealously to the administration of
the Sacrament of Penance. Both were faithful
servants of God and exemplary in the discharge of
their functions, but yet so different in their methods
of direction, that they almost seemed to oppose
one another, though both had the one single aim in
view, namely, to promote the service and the glory
of God. ‘‘ One of them,” said the Saint, ‘‘ is severe
and almost terrible in his preaching. He pro-
claims the judgments of God like the very trump of
doom. In his special devotions, too, he speaks of
nothing but mortifications, austerities, constant
self-examination and such like exercises. Thus, by
the wholesome fears with which he fills the minds
of his penitents, he leads them to an exact observ-
ance of God’s law, and to an anxious solicitude for
their own salvation. He does not harass them with
scruples, and yet keeps them in a marvellous state
of subjection.
The effect of his direction is that God is greatly
feared and dreaded by them, that they fly from sin
as from a serpent, and that they earnestly practise
virtue. This divine fear is coupled with a high
esteem for their Director, and a friendship for him,
holy indeed, but so strong and vehement that it
seems to these souls as though, were they to lose
their guide, they must needs go astray.
The other Director leads souls to God by quite a
different path. His sermons are always on the love
of God. He inculcates the study of virtue rather
than the hatred of vice. He makes his penitents
love virtue more because it pleases God, than
Upon Different Methods of Direction 401
because it is itself worthy of love, and he makes
them hate vice more because it displeases God than
because of the sufferings which it brings upon those
who are slaves to it.
The effect of this direction is to make souls
conceive a love for God that is great, pure and dis-
interested ; also a great affection for their neighbour
for the love of God; while, as for their sentiments
towards their Director, they approach him with
reverential awe, beholding God in him and him in
God, having no affection for his person beyond that
due to all our fellow-men.”’
Our Blessed Father never told me the name of
this Director, nor even gave me the slightest hint
as to who he was, and I therefore sought no further
explanation, contenting myself with admiring the
ways of God and His various desires for the good
of the souls whom He calls to His service. I
became penetrated, too, with the conviction that by
many different routes we can reach one and the
same goal. Let every spirit praise the Lord.
ADVICE UPON HAVING A DIRECTOR.
I asked him one day who was his Director.
Taking from his pocket the Spiritual Combat, he
said: “ You see my Director in this book, which,
from my earliest youth, has, with the help of God,
taught me and been my master in spiritual
matters and in the interior life. When I was a
student at Padua, a Theatine Father instructed and
gave me advice from it, and following its directions
all has been well with me. It was written by a
very holy member of that celebrated congregation,
the author concealing his own name under that of
CC
402 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
his Order, which makes use of the book almost in
the same way as the Jesuits make use of the Exer-
cises of St. Ignatius Loyola.”
I reminded, him that in his Philothea* he recom-
mends people to have a living Director. ‘‘ That is
true,” he answered, ‘‘ but have you not noticed
that I say he must be chosen out of ten thousand ?!
Because there is scarcely one in a thousand to be
found having all the qualities necessary for this
office, or who, if he has them, displays them con-
stantly and perseveringly; men being so variable
that they never remain in one state, as Holy Scrip-
ture assures us.’’+
I asked him if we must then run uncertainly and
pursue our way without guidance. He answered:
‘“ We must seek it among the dead; among those
who are no longer subject to passion or change,
and who have ceased to be swayed by human
interests. Asan Emperor of old said that his most
faithful counsellors were the dead, meaning books,
so we may Say that our safest spiritual directors
are books of piety.”
“ But what,’’ I asked, ‘‘ are those who cannot
read to do?” “They,” he replied, “f must have
good books read to them by people in whom they
can have absolute confidence. Besides, such
simple souls as these do not, as a rule, trouble
themselves much about methods of devotion, or, if
they do, God for the most part bestows on them
such graces as to make it plain that He Himself
is their Teacher, and that they are truly Theodidacts,
or taught by God.”
*Book 1. c. 10. fJob xiv. 2.
1This hyperbole of St. Francis is sometimes pushed to excess.
It T question, too, if M. Camus always understood him rightly.
ED.
Advice upon Having a Director 403
‘“ Must we then,” I asked, ‘‘ give up all spiritual
guides?” ‘‘ By no means,’’ he answered, “ for
besides the fact that we are bound to obey the law
of God coming to us through our Superiors, both
spiritual and temporal, we must also defer most
humbly to our Confessors, to whom we lay bare
the secrets of our conscience. Then, when we find
difficulties in the books which we have chosen for
our guidance, difficulties which, as we read, we
cannot settle to our satisfaction, we must consult
those who are well versed in mystic language, or
rather, I should say, in spiritual matters, and listen
humbly to their opinion. We must not, however,
always consult the same man; for, besides the fact
that Holy Scripture warns us that there 1s safety
where there is much counsel,* we must remember
that if we always consulted the same living oracle,
he would in time become superior to the dead one;
that he would make himself a supplanter, a second
Jacob, pushing aside the book which we had
chosen for our guide, and assuming dominion and
mastery over both dead and living, that is, over
the book and the reader who had chosen it for his
direction. To prevent this encroachment, I had
almost said this unfelt and imperceptibly increas-
ing tyranny, it is well when we meet with diffi-
culties to consult several persons, following the
advice given by the Holy Ghost through the
Apostle St. Paul not to make ourselves the slaves
of men, having been delivered and redeemed at so
great a price, even that of the Precious Blood of
Jesus Christ.’
In answer to my remark that I very much pre-
ferred as a book The Imitation of Christ to the
"Prov. si. 1%. 1: Cor. Vil. 23.
404 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Spiritual Combat, he said that they were both the
works of writers truly animated by the Spirit of
God, that they were indeed different in many
respects, but that it might be said of each of them
as it is of the Saints: There was not found the
like to him.*
He added that in such matters comparisons were
always more or less odious; that beauty, however
it might vary, was always beauty; that the book
of the Imitation had in some respects great advan-
tages over the Combat, but that the latter had also
some advantages over the Imitation. Among
these he mentioned with special commendation its
arrangement and that it goes deeper into things
and more thoroughly to the root of the matter. He
concluded by saying that we should do well to read
the one and not neglect the other, for that both
books were so short that to do this would not put
us to much expenditure of time or trouble.
He valued the Imitation, he said, greatly for its
brevity and conciseness as an aid to prayer and
contemplation, but the Combat as a help in active
and practical life.
Upon TRUE AND MISTAKEN ZEAL.
Zeal was a virtue which Blessed Francis ever
regarded with a certain amount of suspicion. “It
is,” he used to say, ‘‘ generally speaking, impetu-
ous, and although it strives to exterminate vice by
reproving sinners, it is apt, if not guided by
moderation and prudence, to produce most
disastrous effects.
There is a zeal so bitter and fierce that it pardons
*Eccle. xliv. 20.
Upon True and Mistaken Zeal 405
nothing, exaggerates the smallest faults, and, like
an unskilful physician, only makes the disease of
the soul more serious. There is zeal of another
kind, which is so lax and weakly tender, that st
forgives everything, thinking in so doing to
practise charity, which is patient and kind, seeks
not her own, and bears all wrongs done to her even
joyfully; but such zeal, too, is quite mistaken, for
true charity cannot endure without grief any wrong
done to God, that is to say, anything contrary to
His honour and glory.
True zeal must be accompanied by knowledge
and judgment. It pardons certain things, or, at
least, winks at them, until the right time and place
are come for correcting them; it reproves others
when it sees there is hope of amendment, leaving
no stone unturned when it thinks there is a possi-
bility of preserving or advancing the glory of God.
It is certain that zeal tempered with gentleness is
far more efficacious than that which is turbulent
and boisterous. This is why the Prophet, wishing
to demonstrate the power of the Messiah to bring
the whole universe under the sweet yoke of obedi-
ence to Him, does not speak of Him as the Lion
of the Tribe of Juda, but as the Lamb, the Ruler
of the Earth. The Psalmist says the very same
thing in a few words: Mildness is come upon us,
and we shall be corrected.”
I was complaining one day to our Saint of injuries
which I had suffered through the mistaken zeal of
some persons of eminent virtue, and he replied
thus: ‘f Do you not know that the best honey is
made by the bees which have the sharpest sting ? ”
It is true, indeed, that nothing hurts us so much as
406 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
wrong done by those on whose support we reckoned,
as David knew well when he said: ‘‘ For if my
enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne
with it, and if he that hated me had spoken great
things against me, I would perhaps have hidden
myself from him, but thou, a man of one mind, my
guide, and my familiar—who together didst take
sweet meats with me: in the house of God wé walkéd
with consent.’’*
‘f Consider,” the Saint went on to say, ‘“‘ by
whom Jesus Christ was betrayed.’’ Listen to the
words spoken by him through the mouth of His
Prophet, spoken moreover of His most sacred
wounds, ‘‘ With these I was wounded in the house
of them that loved me.’’+
And, after all, is not hope always at the bottom
of Pandora’s box? Virtuous people carried away
by this mistaken zeal, will, directly their eyes are
opened, only too gladly recognise the truth, and
will love you more than ever. Pray to God to
enlighten them and to deliver you from the attacks
of calumny. And if the worst comes to the worst,
is it not the duty of a true Christian to bless those
who curse him, to pray for those who persecute
him, and to render good for evil, provided he really
wishes to bea faithful child of the Heavenly Father,
who makes His sun to shine, and His rain to fall,
on the wicked as well as on the good.{
Let your sighs and lamentations be breathed
softly into the ear of God alone, saying to Him:
“They will curse, and Thou wilt bless, and they
that look to Thee shall not be confounded.§
*Psalm liv. 13-16. a
tZach. xiii. 6. {Matt. v. 44-45. §Psalm cviii. 28.
Upon the Institution of the Visitation, £c. 407
UPON THE INSTITUTION OF THE VISITATION ORDER.
When he instituted the Congregation of the
Visitation of Holy Mary in the town of Annecy,
where he resided, he had no intention either of
multiplying Religious Houses or of forming a new
Order or Institute with vows, of which he said there
were already enough in the Church. His idea was
to form an assembly of devout widows and maidens,
free and unbound either by monastic vows or enclo-
sure, who should, in their house, occupy themselves
with prayer and manual labour, only going out for
two objects, namely, to discharge their own domes-
tic duties or to perform works of mercy done for
their neighbour to the glory of God. Those who
embraced this mode of life practised it with such
success that not only the town of Annecy, but all
the country round felt the influence of their holy
life, and was greatly edified by their example; while
the sick and poor, whom they visited in their dis-
tress, were both consoled and relieved by them.
Later on, these holy women formed a little settle-
ment at Lyons, but not to the satisfaction of the
then Archbishop, afterwards Cardinal, de Marque-
mont. This Prelate, although a person of much
excellence, having lived the greater part of his life
in Rome, where he was Auditor to the Rota, was
so thoroughly imbued with all the Italian maxims
as to the management of women that he could not
endure their living thus without vows or enclosure.
He therefore not only advised, but even urged our
Blessed Father to insist upon their choosing some
one of the monastic Rules approved by the Church,
and upon their taking perpetual vows, and
408 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
preserving an inviolable enclosure. Our Blessed
Father, who was extremely pliable, condescending,
and ready to yield to the will of others, allowed
himself to be persuaded by this great Prelate.
The Archbishop then promised that he would
submit to the approbation of Rome the Constitu-
tions which the holy Bishop had prepared for the
guidance of this simple community, provided that
they were in accordance with the Rule of St.
Augustine.
Our Blessed Father also induced his dear
daughters to lay aside their original manner of
life in order to embrace this second, which took the
shape of an Order properly so called, having per-
petual vows.
Since this change he has often told me that the
Congregation owed its establishment simply to the
providence and ordering of God, Whose Spirit
breathes where He wills, and Who effects changes
with His own right hand when it pleases Him; and
Whose own perfection it is which makes His works
admirable in our eyes.
‘“ As for me,” he once said to me, ‘‘I am filled
with astonishment when I reflect that, alone and
unaided, but with extraordinary calmness of mind,
I have done what I wished to undo, and undone
what I wished to do.”
“ What do you mean by that?” I asked. And
he replied: ‘“ I never thought for a moment of
forming a Religious Order, being of opinion that
their number is already amply sufficient. No, I
only intended to gather together a little company
of maidens and widows without solemn vows and
without enclosure, having no wealth, but that of
Upon the Institution of the Visitation, dc. 409
holy charity, which is indeed all silk and gold, and
is the great bond which unites all Christians, the
true bond of all perfection, the bond of the Spirit
of God, the spirit of holy and absolute liberty.’’
He went on to say that their occupation had
hitherto been, as I have already told you, prayer,
manual labour, and visiting the sick and destitute.
“ I fear,” he added, ‘‘ that there will be quite an
uproar in the little town when, under the new
system, their vows and enclosure oblige them to
abandon their works of mercy. Indeed, I gave their
Order the title of the Visitation of Holy Mary that
they might take for their pattern in their visits to
the sick, that visit which the Blessed Virgin paid
to her cousin St. Elizabeth, with whom she dwelt
for three months, to help her and to wait upon her.
Now that they are enclosed, they will be rather
visited than visitors; but since the holy providence
of God so orders it, may that providence be for
ever blessed.” All that I have just told you is
clearly expressed in the letter written by him on the
subject of the change to Cardinal Bellarmine, which
can be seen in the volume of his letters. In remem-
brance, as it were, of his first design, he expresses
his desire to obtain from the Holy See, through the
intervention of the great Cardinal, three privileges
for this Institution. The first, that it should only
be obliged to recite the office of the Blessed Virgin.
The second, that widows should be allowed to be
received and to live there, wearing their secular
dress, without taking any vows, and with power to
come out if at any time the necessity of their affairs
should oblige them to do so. The third, that even
married women should be allowed to enter, and to
410 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
remain for a short time with the permission of their
husbands and of the Spiritual Father, without being
either Benefactresses or Foundresses. The letter
justifies all this, and is full of beautiful and sensible
reasons for it. I know also that during his life-
time, when the twelve first Houses of the Order
were established, he saw that in them all those rules
were carried out.
I cannot here refrain from quoting for you a
passage from Cardinal Bellarmine’s reply to the
letter written to him by our Blessed Father on this
subject. It shows very plainly how highly that
good and learned Prelate approved of the first
design for the constitution of this Order, and how
little he favoured the change of plan, which has,
nevertheless, we must admit, redounded greatly to
the glory of God and to the edification of the whole
Church.
The Cardinal says in this letter: ‘‘ I will give you
the same advice as I should take for myself were
I in similar circumstances. I should then keep
these maidens and widows exactly as they are at
present, not making any change in a state of things
which is so admirable. For, before the time of
Boniface VIII. there were consecrated persons in
the Church, the Eastern as well as the Western,
mentioned by the Fathers. Among the Latins, St.
Cyprian, St. Ambrose, S. Jerome, and St. Augus-
tine; among the Greeks, St. Athanasius, St.
Chrysostom, St. Basil, and many others; but they
were not enclosed in their convents in such a
manner that they could not come out of them when
necessary. And your most Reverend Lordship is
aware that simple vows are no less binding and are
Upon the Institution of the Visitation, dc. 411
of no Jess merit in the sight of God than solemn
ones. Indeed, the solemnizing of vows, as well as
the rule of Enclosure, was originated by an
ecclesiastical decree of the said Boniface VIII.
Even at the present day, the convent of noble
ladies, founded by St. Frances of Rome, flourishes
in that city, although without any enclosure or
solemn profession. Therefore, if in your country
maidens and widows live in so holy a manner, with-
out being either cloistered or enclosed, and are
able thus to be of use to those in the world, I do
not see why their mode of living should be
changed.”
What our Blessed Father dreaded for the Institute
was what happens to those Institutes which fail in
exactitude of observance. And he often quoted
Saint Bernard’s saying that though devotion had
given birth to riches, these unnatural daughters
had stifled their mother. Whenever he heard of
any House established in his time beginning to
complain of want of comforts or conveniences he
would say: ‘‘ One day they will have only too
many.’ All his letters are full of exhortations
to put up with discomforts, and to lean upon
Providence, casting all care upon God, Who feeds
the young ravens, satisfies the hunger of all flesh,
and fills every living creature with blessings.
Wealth, not poverty, was what he feared for his
Order. This is what he says in the Constitutions:
““ For the more perfect observance of the holy virtue
of poverty, when once the buildings of the convents
are finished, the revenues shall be limited according
to the place where each convent is situated, to the
end that even in this a proper mean may be kept,
412 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and that there be no superfluity of goods in the
Community, but only a fair sufficiency, and when
this is once attained nothing further shall be taken
for the reception of the Sisters coming to it, but
what shall be requisite to keep up and maintain well
the just competency of the convent.*
And in the letter which he wrote to the most
Serene Infanta, Margaret of Sovoy, Dowager
Duchess of Mantua, to invite her to take this Con-
gregati n under her protection, he says:
‘This Congregation does not solicit alms, but
is established in such a manner that the ladies who
enter it give a dowry in order to maintain the
buildings, the sacristy, the chaplain, and to defray
the expenses of illness, etc., either by means of a
regular and perpetual income, or by some other
way which cannot injure anyone or interefere in
any possible manner with the payment of the taxes
and subsidies due to his most Serene Highness the
Duke. I hope also that the above-mentioned Con-
gregation will in a few years’ time be endowed with
revenues sufficient for the support of the Com-
munity. Thus widows without children, and young
girls who desire to serve God in chastity, obedience,
and poverty, will have every facility for entering it,
since they will be received without any other pay-
ment than that of a dowry or pension provided by
their family for their support.’’
His DEFENCE OF HIS NEW CONGREGATION OF THE
VISITATION.
On one occasion, some one speaking to him, my
eg of your ‘‘ Congregation,” said: ‘* But what
*Constitution 5.
His Defence of his New Congregation, £c. 413
do you mean to do with all this crowd of women
and maidens? Of what use will they be to the
Church of God? Are there not already enough of
such institutions into which these applicants might
be drafted? Would you not be doing better if you
were to establish some College for the training and
education of Priests, and spend your time on them
instead of on these persons to whom one must
repeat a thing a hundred times before they can
retain it? And then, after all, if they do, it is a
treasure buried, a candlestick under a bushel. Is
it not a case of painting on water and sowing on
sand ?”’
Our Blessed Father, smiling graciously,
answered with his extraordinary serenity and sweet-
ness: “‘It is not for me to work with costly
materials; goldsmiths handle the precious metals,
potters only clay. Believe me, God is a skilled
workman; with poor tools He can accomplish
wonderful work. He is wont to choose weak things
to confound the strong; ignorance to confound
knowledge, and that which is nothing to confound
that which seems to be something. What did He
not do with a rod in the hand of Moses? With
the jaw-bone of an ass in that of Samson? With
what did He vanquish Holofernes? Was it not
by the hand of a woman? When He willed to
create the world, out of what did He form it, save
nothingness? Believe me, great fires are often
kindled from small sparks. Where was the sacred
fire found when the Jews returned from their
captivity among the Medes? In a little mud!
This weaker sex is deserving of being treated with
great tenderness: we must take much more care of
414 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
it than we do of the stronger one. St. Bernard
says that the charge of souls is for the weak far
more than for the strong. Our Lord never refused
His assistance to women. He was generally
followed by several of them, and they did not for-
sake Him on the Cross, where he was abandoned
by all His disciples excepting His beloved John.
The Church who gives the title of devout to this
sex does not hold it in such low estimation as
you do.
Besides, do you reckon as nothing the good
example which they may set wherever God calls
them? Is it unimportant in your opinion to be a
sweet odour in Jesus Christ, an odour of life
eternal? Of the two requisites for a good pastor,
precept and example, which think you is the most
estimable? For my part I think more of an ounce
of example than of a hundred pounds’ weight of
precept. Without a good life doctrine turns into
scandal; it is like a church bell, it calls others, but
itself never goes in; hence the reproach: Physician,
heal thyself.
Even if holy women only served as perfumes for
the Church they would not be useless. A great
deal of incense is employed by her in her cere-
monies!
It is true that there are, as you say, a great many
other Congregations already in the Church, into
which some of those who are enrolled in this new
one might enter; but there are, besides, many in
the Visitation who, on account of their age or
infirmities, or because of their feebleness of consti-
tution, though they be young, are quite incapable
of enduring the bodily austerities imposed by other
His Defence of his New Congregation, £c. 415
Orders, and therefore cannot be admitted into them.
If we receive into this one some who are strong and
healthy, it is that they may wait upon the weak and
delicate, for whom this Congregation has chiefly
been instituted, and to put in practice that holy com-
mand: Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so you
Shall fulfil the law of Christ.*
As for your exhortation to me to think about form-
ing a Congregation of Priests, do you not see that
that is already planned by M. de Berulle, a great
and faithful servant of God, who has far more capa-
city for the work, and much more leisure also, than
I can get? Remember how heavily burdened I am
with the charge of a diocese, in which is situated
such a place as Geneva, the very fountain-head of
the errors which are troubling the whole Church.
In conclusion, let us leave great designs to great
workmen. God will do what He pleases with my
little plan.”
UPON THE ODOUR OF SANCTITY.
Our Blessed Father held in the very highest
esteem the odour of sanctity, and revered those who
by their good example shed it abroad through the
world, not for their own glory, but for the glory of
God.
On another occasion when some morose and cap-
tious person was finding fault with the Visitation
Order, and after taking exception to it because of
its newness, wound up by saying to Blessed Fran-
cis, ‘“‘ And then of what use will it be to the
Church?’’ The holy Prelate answered pleasantly :
“To play the part of the Queen of Sheba.” And
* Gal. vi. 2.
416 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
what part is that ?’’ returned the man. ‘‘ To render
homage to Him who is greater than Solomon, and
to fill the whole militant Jerusalem with perfumes
and sweet odours.”’
In one of his Conferences he expresses the same
thought as follows: “‘In my opinion the divine
Majesty has made choice of you to go forth as per-
fume-bearers, seeing that He has commissioned you
to go and scatter far and wide the sweet odours of
the virtues of your Institute. And as young
maidens love sweet odours (for the Bride in the
Canticle of Canticles says that the name of her
Beloved is as oil, or balm, shedding on all sides
the sweetest perfumes, and therefore, she adds, the
young maidens have followed Him, attracted by His
divine perfumes), so do you, my dear sisters, as
perfume-bearers of the Divine Goodness, go forth,
shedding all around the incomparable sweetness of
sincere humility, gentleness, and charity, so that
many young maidens may be attracted thereby, and
may embrace your manner of life, and that they may
even in this world enjoy, like you, a holy loving
peace and tranquillity of soul, and in the world to
come eternal happiness.”
He REBUKES PHARISAISM.
On one occasion when the Sisters of the Visitation
had made a foundation in a city famous for the piety
of its inhabitants and in which there were already a
number of Religious Houses highly esteemed for
external austerities and severe discipline, they met
with much criticism and even harsh treatment on
account of their own gentler and apparently easier
rule.
He Rebukes Pharisaism 417
In the end, they made known to Blessed Francis
what they had to put up with.
I ought, perhaps, to say that, among other ill-
natured remarks, they had been reproached with
having strewn a path of roses to lead them to
Heaven, and with having brought our Saviour
down from the Cross; meaning that they did not
practise many corporal austerities. Those who
said this quite forgot the fact that this Order of the
Visitation was founded for the reception and con-
solation largely of women, whether young or old,
weak in bodily health, though strong and healthy
in mind, whose feeble frames could not support the
external rigour demanded by other Communities.
Our Blessed Father, as I told you, having heard
from letters addressed to him by the Superior, of
the harsh treatment and sufferings of his poor
daughters, wrote to her several times on the subject.
The following words of his are especially remark-
able for their beauty :
‘““ Beware, my daughter, of replying in any way
whatever to these good Sisters, or to their friends
in the world, unless, indeed, you do so with unalter-
able humility, gentleness, and sweetness. Do not
defend yourselves,* for such is the express com-
mand of the Holy Ghost. If they despise your
Order because it appears to them inferior to theirs,
they violate the law of charity, which does not
permit the strong to despise the weak, or the great
the small. Granted that they are superior to you,
do the Seraphim despise the little Angels, or the
great Saints in Paradise, those of inferior, nay, of
the lowest rank? Oh, my dear daughter, who-
*Rom. xii. 19.
DD
418 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
ever loves God the most will be the most loved by
Him, and will be the most glorious up in Heaven.
Do not distress yourself, the prize is awarded to
those who love.”
Upon RELIGIOUS SUPERIORS.
Speaking of Superiors, I may tell youthat Blessed
Francis divided them into four classes. ‘‘ First,”
he said, ‘‘ there are those who are very indulgent to
others, and also to themselves. Secondly, there
are those who are severe to others, and equally so
to themselves. Thirdly, there are some who are
indulgent to their subordinates and rigid to them-
selves. Fourthly, there are those who are indul-
gent to themselves and rigorous to others.”
He condemned the first as careless and criminal
persons, heedless of their duties: they abandon the
ship they should pilot, to the mercy of the waves.
A Superior of the seeond kind often spoils every-
thing precisely because he wishes to do too much,
and falls into those exaggerations which have lent
truth to the saying, “ Absolute right is absolute
injustice.” ‘‘ He who would rule well,’’ runs an
ancient aphorism, ‘‘ must rule with a slack hand.”
We must not hold our horse’s bridle over tightly,
for though we may save him from stumbling we
hinder him even from walking.
Superiors of the third class are better because they
put a kindly construction upon the faults and in-
firmities of others less known to them, as ‘they
necessarily are, than their own. This is the reason
why they are severe to themselves and indulgent to
others—a line of conduct which generally meets
with the approval of their subjects. The latter are
Upon Religious Superiors 419
the more edified because they see their Superiors
observing those very laws from which they have
dispensed them. It is just so with the laity: they
are mostly more anxious about the morals of their
clergy than they are about their own.
Superiors of the fourth and last kind are truly
unfaithful servants. They resemble those
Pharisees who laid on the shoulders of other men
heavy burdens which they themselves would not
touch with the tip of their finger.
Our Blessed Father wished that all these four
classes could be merged in a fifth, that of which the
watchword should be holy equality according to
that precept both of nature and of the Gospel: ‘‘ Do
to others as you would be done by; treat others as
you would wish to be treated yourself, and treat
yourself as you know you ought to be treated.’ In
fact, since each man is to himself his nearest neigh-
bour, we all recognise the injustice of demanding
in the life of others what we do not practise in our
own. To command others to do what we do not
ourselves do is to be like Urias, who carried his own
condemnation and death-warrant in his bosom.
One day, in his presence, I was praising a certain
Superior for his extreme goodness, gentleness,
patience, and condescension, which attracted all
hearts to him, just as flies are attracted to a honey-
comb. He answered, ‘‘ Goodness is not good when
it puts up with evil; on the contrary, it is bad when
it allows evils to go on which it can, and should,
prevent. Gentleness in such a case is not gentle-
ness, but weakness and cowardice. Patience in
such a case is not patience, but absolute stupidity.
When we suffer evil which we could prevent, we
420 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
do not merely tolerate but become accomplices in
wrong-doing. I am of opinion that subjects are
made good by bad, I mean, by harsh and disagree-
able Superiors. The severity of a mother is more
wholesome for a child than the petting of an in-
dulgent nurse, and the firmness of a father is always
more useful to his children than their mother’s
tenderness. The rougher the file the better it
smoothes the iron, and the more rust it rubs off;
the hotter the iron, the better the surface it gives
to the cloth.’ He related with regard to this
subject an anecdote which will both please and
profit you.
The head of a certain Religious Order, which
was at the time undergoing a vigorous reform, had,
with the consent of the Provincial Chapter, estab-
lished a Novitate House which was to serve as the
one only Seminary for the whole province. It was
decided that no novice should be clothed until he
had been examined by three Fathers of the Order
appointed for that purpose. The first was to
enquire into the birth and condition of those who
presented themselves for examination, the second
into their literary capacity, and the third into their
manner of life and vocation. This last, in order to
get a firm grip on the pulse of the postulants, and
to sound their vocation to the very quick almost
always asked them if they would have courage and
patience enough to put up with bad Superiors, bad
in the extreme, cruel, rude, peevish, choleric,
melancholy, captious, pitiless, those, in a word,
whom they would find it impossible to please or
Satisfy.
Some, evading the question, replied that there
Upon Religious Superiors 421
could be none such in the Order, or, at least, would
not be suffered to remain in office, seeing that it
was governed with so much gentleness and
benignity, and that its yoke was so sweet and desir-
able. The examiner, who did not like evasive and
ambiguous replies of this sort, determined to get
an answer that should be straight-forward and to
the point. Taking a much sterner.tone, he repre-
sented a Superior to them asa sort of slave-driver:
a man who would govern his subjects by blows and
Stripes, and who yet would expect them to drink
this chalice of bitterness as if offered to their lips
by the hand of God.
Some of the postulants fearing the test, became
pale or crimson with agitation, and either answered
nothing, showing by their silence that they could
not swallow the pill, or, if they answered at all,
declared that they could not believe he was speaking
seriously, and that they were not galley-slaves.
These he dismissed at once as unfit to be received
into the Order.
Others, however, full of courage and constancy,
still answered, that they were prepared for any ill-
treatment, and that nothing could deter them from
Carrying out their God-inspiring resolution. That
no creature, however cruel and however unfeeling,
could separate them from the love of Jesus Christ,
nor from Hisservice. These the examining Father
received with open arms into the bosom of the
Order.
You may judge from this how skilful was this
master of novices in hewing, hammering, and
cutting the stones he was endeavouring to fit for
the spiritual edifice of the Order. Our Blessed
422 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Father himself, in spite of all the sweetness and
gentleness of his natural disposition, did not fail
to follow this plan to a certain extent, representing
to all who came to him, desiring to enter into
religion, the interior and spiritual crosses which
they must resolve to carry all their life long, not
the least heavy of which, and at the same time not
the least useful in helping them to make great
advance in perfection would perhaps be the severity
of Superiors.
Upon UNLEARNED SUPERIORS.
A certain community having had their Superior
taken from them on account of their complaints of
the severity of his rule, and having a new one set
over them in his place, came to Blessed Francis to
pour out their grievances on the subject of their
recently appointed head. They declared that he
was an ignorant man. ‘‘ What is to be done with
you ?” cried our Blessed Father, ‘“‘ you remind me
of the frogs to whom Jupiter could not give a king
who was to their taste. We ought certainly to
wish to have good and capable Superiors, but still
whatever they may be we must put up with them.”’
One of the complainers was so wanting in discre-
tion as to say that their one-eyed horse had been
changed intoa blind one. Blessed Francis suffered
this jest to pass, merely frowning slightly, but his
modest silence only unchained the tongue of
another scoffer who presumed to say that an ass had
been given to them instead of a horse. Then Blessed
Francis spoke, and, rebuking this last speech,
added in a tone of gentle remonstrance, that the
first remark, though far from being respectful, was
Upon Unlearned Superiors 423
more endurable because it was a proverb and
implied that a Superior had been given to them who
was less capable than his predecessor, and that this
was expressed in figurative terms, as David speaks
of himself in relation to Almighty God in one of
the Psalms when he says: I am become as a beast
before Thee.* ‘‘ The second sarcasm, however,”
he added, ‘‘has nothing figurative in it, and is
absolutely and grossly insulting. We must never
speak of our Superiors in such a manner, however
worthless they may be. Remember that God would
have us obey even the vicious and froward,f and he
that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of
Gad .””t
Then taking up the defence of this much-abused
Superior, ‘‘ Do you imagine,” he said, ‘“‘ that it is
not within the power of God to exalt in a moment
one who is poor in spirit by bestowing on him the
gift of intelligence? Is not He the God of know-
ledge? Is it not He who imparts it to men? Are
not all the faithful taught of God?
The science of the Saints is the science of Salva-
tion, and this is a knowledge more frequently given
to those who are destitute of the knowledge which
puffs up. In what condition think you was Saul
when God raised him to the throne of Israel ?
He was keeping his father’s asses. On what did
Jesus Christ ride triumphant on Palm Sunday?
Was it not upon an ass?”
Again, in his eleventh Conference, he says: ‘‘ If
Balaam was well instructed by an ass, we may with
greater reason believe that God, Who gave you this
Superior, will enable him to teach you according to
*; Peter ii. Ye, Rom. xiii. 2.
424 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
His will, though it may not be according to your
own.”’
He wound up his remarks on the subject of the
new Superior by saying: ‘‘ I understand that this
good man is most gentle and kind, and that if he
does not know much he does none the less well, so
that his example makes up for any deficiency in his
teaching. It is far better to have a Superior who
does the good which he fails in teaching, than one
who tells us what we ought to do, but does not
himself practise it.”
UPON THE FOUNDING OF CONVENTS.
You know, my Sisters, with what circumspection
and prudence our Blessed Father moved in the
matter of foundations. During the last thirteen
years of his life, in which he established your Con-
gregation, he only accepted twelve convents and
refused three times as many, saying, as was his
wont, ‘‘ Few and good.’’ He was always very
particular about the Superiors to whom he com-
mitted the charge of monastic houses, knowing the
immense importance of such choice and its influence
upon all the members of a Religious family.
He was fond of comparing a convent to a bee-
hive, and in one of his Conferences applies this
comparison to your own Order as follows :—‘‘ Your
Congregation,” he says, ‘‘ is like a bee-hive which
has already sent forth various swarms: but with
this difference, that when bees go forth to settle in
another hive and to begin a new household each
swarm chooses a particular queen under whom they
live and dwell apart.
You, my dear souls, though you may go into a
-e
Upon the Founding of Convents 425
new hive, that is, begin a new house of your Order,
have always only one and the same King, our
crucified Lord, under Whose authority you will
live secure and safe wherever you may be. Do not
fear that anything will be wanting to you, for, as
long as you do not choose any other King He will
ever be with you; only take great care to grow in
love and fidelity to His divine goodness, keeping as
close to Him as possible. Thus all will be well with
you. Learn from Him all that you will have to
do; do nothing without His counsel, for He is the
faithful Friend who will guide you and govern
you and take care of you, as with all my heart I
beseech Him to do.*
Very often I urged him to consent to certain
foundations which it was proposed to make, but
He always gave me some good reason for refusing.
It was not without trouble and difficulty that we
obtained a little colony for Belley. He often said
to me: “The Sisters are as yet but novices in
piety, they must be left to grow a little stronger ;
have patience, for we shall be doing quite enough
if the little we do is what pleases our divine Master.
It is better for them to grow at the roots by virtue
rather than in the branches by forming new houses.
Will they, do you think, be more perfect because
they have more convents? ”
Upon RECEIVING THE INFIRM INTO COMMUNITIES.
Regarding the reception of the infirm, he might
have exclaimed with St. Paul: Who is weak and I
am not weak? Blessed Francis shared largely in
this spirit, so much did he love the infirm, whether
*Conf,. 6.
426 The Sprit of St. Francis De Sales
of body or of mind. He loved the poor in spirit;
poor, that is, whether in earthly goods or in the
wisdom of the world, and he used to say that their
simplicity was a soil suitable for the planting of
all sorts of virtues, that it would yield much fruit
in due season. He was of opinion that during the
year of Novitiate established in all communities
preparatory to the embracing of religious life, too
much attention was paid to the consideration of
infirmities, both spiritual and corporal, just as if
convents were not in reality so many hospitals for
healing the diseases of body and mind. Hence, he
added, came the name of Therapeutes, that is,
curers, healers, or operators, formerly given to
Monks.
It is true that there are certain bodily diseases
which from the fact of their being infectious
necessitate the separation of such as are afflicted
with them from the healthy. So also there are
spiritual maladies, such as incompatibility of temper
and incorrigibility of defects, which may make it
proper to refuse those who are thus disqualified for
entering Religion, just as in former days, persons
suffering from these disabilities could be dismissed
even after Profession.
In one of his letters he thus expresses his feeling
for the infirm: ‘‘ I am,” he says, ‘‘a great partisan
of the infirm and am always afraid lest the incon-
veniences to which they must naturally put the
Community should excite a spirit of human
prudence in our convents and banish the spirit of
charity in which our Congregation was founded,
and which is our safest guide in selecting our
Sisters. I take, then, the side of your infirm appli-
Upon Self-Pity 427
cant, and provided that she be humble and ready
to recognise and appreciate your charity, you must
receive the poor girl; it will be a constant oppor-
tunity for the Sisters to practise the holy virtue
of loving-kindness.
Upon SELrFr-PItTy.
Gentle and compassionate as his disposition was,
full of tenderness, and sympathy for the feeble and
the frail, Blessed Francis was nevertheless strict
and severe in his dealings with those whom he knew
to be too lenient to themselves, either in temporal or
Spiritual matters.
He who practised so much severity in his own
case, assuredly had the right to advise others to
do as much, and especially, like him, to refrain from
complaining at the inconveniences and sufferings
endured in time of sickness. He succeeded in
inspiring his Daughters of the Visitation with his
spirit, teaching them that true christian patience,
which is neither apathy nor insensibility, nor the
dull stupid endurance of the Stoics; but a sweet
and reasonable submission to the Will of God,
coupled with cheerful obedience to the physician
whom He commands us to honour, and a grateful
acceptance of the remedies prescribed for us.
UPON THE GOVERNMENT OF NUNS BY RELIGIOUS
MEN.
It was never his opinion that nuns should be
under the jurisdiction and guidance of other
Religious, especially of those of their own Order.
For this he alleged several very weighty reasons,
428 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
which I have been careful to bear in mind that I
may impart them to you at the right time and place.
For the present, however, I will content myself
with reading you one of his letters, and with after-
wards making a little comment upon it.
“I observe,” he says, ‘“‘ that many influential
people are inclined to think that Religious Houses
should be under the authority of the Ordinaries,
according to the old rule revived lately throughout
almost the whole of Italy; whilst others would
have them to be under Superiors of their own
Order, comformably to a custom introduced about
four or five hundred years ago, and almost univer-
sally observed in France. For my own part, I
confess that I cannot bring myself to adopt the
view of those who desire that convents of women
should be placed under the guidance of Religious
men, still less of the Fathers of their own Order.
And in this I feel that I am of the same mind as
the Holy See, which always, where it can be reason-
ably brought about, opposes itself to the govern-
ment of nuns by Regulars.
I do not say that such government is not some-
times advantageous, even at the present day, but
I do say that it would be far better if in general it
were done away with. And this for many reasons.
It seems to me that it is no more difficult for the
Pope to exempt the nuns of any Order from the
jurisdiction of the Fathers of that same Order, than
it is for him to exempt monasteries from the juris-
diction of their Ordinary, a procedure inspired no
doubt by the most excellent motives, and that has
been carried out successfully for so many centuries.
The Pope has, as a matter of fact, kept our own
Upon the Government of Nuns, dc. 429
nuns in France under the rule of the Bishops, and
it appears to me that these same good nuns do not
know what is good for them when they seek to be
transferred to the jurisdiction of a Religious Order,
seeing that Regular Superiors are apt to be a little
rigorous in the exercise of their authority, and to
deprive those under them of holy liberty of spirit.”
I would call your attention to the fact mentioned
by our Blessed Father that almost everywhere in
Italy the nuns are under the guidance and juris-
diction of the Bishops. Of this I was myself an
eye-witness, and I noticed at Florence, that out of
fifty convents, only four are not under the juris-
diction and direction of the Archbishop.
I would also remind you that the Holy Apostolic
See has, as far as possible, and for many reasons,
revived this ancient form of government of nuns.
That these reasons exist it is well to bear in mind,
though it may not always be prudent to urge them
in public.
Again, if in former times it was thought advis-
able to exempt nuns from the guidance and juris-
diction of their Ordinaries, or Diocesan Pastors, at
the present day there are far more weighty reasons
for replacing them under the authority of the
Bishops, and for taking from the Regulars this
exceptional jurisdiction.
This is exactly what our Blessed Father thought
about the matter. Remember then always that to
put convents under the Bishops is to bring things
back to their first and purest state, for as regards
exemption we can assuredly say that from the
beginning it was not so.
It seems, too, to me, that nuns who desire the
430 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
guidance of Monks, especially of Fathers of their
own Order, are true daughters of Zebedee; they
know not what they ask, nor what they want, nor
what they are doing.
Tuar WE Must Not BE WEDDED TO Our Own
PLANS.
Our Blessed Father used to praise very highly
the conduct of Blessed John of Avila as having been
prompted by great strength of mind, and extra-
ordinary forgetfulness of self in that his zeal made
him not only love his neighbour as himself but
even more than himself. I will give you an in-
stance of this in Francis’ own words, addressed to
Theotimus: ‘‘ The Blessed Ignatius of Loyola,
having with such pains set up the company of
Jesus, which he saw produced many fair fruits, and
foresaw many more that would ripen in time to
come, had, nevertheless, the nobleness of soul to
resolve that, though he should see it dissolved
(which would be the bitterest pain which could
befall him) within half an hour afterwards, he would
be stayed and tranquil in the Will of God. John
of Avila, that holy and learned preacher of
Andalusia, having a design to form a company of
reformed Priests for the advancement of God’s
glory, and having already made good progress in
the matter, as soon as he saw the Jesuits in the
field, thinking they were enough for that time,
immediately, with incomparable meekness and
humility, renounced his own undertaking. Oh,
how blessed are such souls, bold and strong in the
undertakings God proposes to them, and withal
tractable and facile in giving them up when God
That We Must Not be Wedded, dc. 431
so disposes. It is a mark of a most perfect In-
difference to leave off doing a good work when God
pleases, and to return, our journey half accomplished
when God’s Will, which is our guide, so ordains.’’*
I may tell you, my Sisters, that you have only to
change the name of John of Avila into that of the
Blessed Francis de Sales, and you can apply to an
event in his life these very words. I know that he
had in his mind a scheme of forming a Congrega-
tion of Priests, not bound by monastic vows, some-
thing on the pattern of your Order of the Visitation
in its beginning; but, of course, conformable to the
calling of the Priesthood. Hearing, however, that
Pierre de Berulle, that faithful servant of God,
afterwards a Cardinal, had established the Congre-
gation of the French Oratory, now so greatly
distinguished for its piety and learning, he aban-
doned his enterprise, rejoicing that God should
have given this holy commission to one less busy
than himself, and therefore more capable of
ordering all things in this holy Society, and thus
promoting the glory of God. I have said, that he
meant to take the Visitation as a model of this
projected Congregation of Priests, intending them
to develop, and to prosper side by side. I must
add, however, that even before the formation of
your Congregation he had made an attempt in the
same direction by drawing together a little company
of hermits on the gloomy but holy mountain of
Notre Dame de Voiron, and preparing for them
laws and constitutions in the observance of which
they haved lived with great sanctity ever since.
You know also that his zeal was so condescending
*Dook ix. chap. 6.
432 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
in its nature, and that he was so little wedded to
his own opinions, that, though the Visitation had
flourished for four or five years with great edifica-
tion to others as well as to itself, yet as soon as His
Grace the Archbishop of Lyons, afterwards Car-
dinal de Marquemont, had represented to him that
it would better for it to be re-constructed with
vows and enclosures like other Orders, he con-
sented to change its whole constitution.
Speaking of great works undertaken for the glory
of God, which, owing to the illness or death of
their founder or head, sometimes seem in danger of
falling to the ground, Blessed Francis said: “‘ There
are some undertakings which God wishes to be
begun indeed by us, but completed by others.
Thus David gathered together materials for the
temple which his son Solomon built. St. Francis,
St. Dominic, St. Ignatius Loyola, sighed for the
grace of martyrdom, and sought for it by all
possible means, yet God would not crown them with
it, contenting Himself with the offering of their
will.
To submit ourselves simply and cheerfully to the
Will of God in the failure of undertakings which
concern His glory is an act of no small resignation.”
His Views REGARDING ECCLESIASTICAL
DIGNITIES.
It is certain that two great Pontiffs, Clement
VIII. and Paul V., held Blessed Francis in the
highest possible esteem. Paul V. more than once
when speaking to me dwelt upon his merit, and said
how suitable and indeed how necessary such a
Bishop was for a diocese like that of Geneva.
Regarding Ecclesiastical Dignities 433
We know, too, that the same Pope often thought
of raising him to the dignity of Cardinal. Our
Blessed Father was himself well aware of this, and
mentioned it in letters written to his confidential
friends, some of which have since been published.
It is probable that the fact that this honour was
never conferred upon him was owing to the
political difficulties which beset the Supreme Pontiff
in these matters.
Puzzled at his not receiving the hat, I one day
expressed to him my great surprise at the delay.
“ Why,” he answered, “‘ can you really think this
dignity would in any way conduce to my serving
our Lord and His Church better than Ican now do?
Would Rome, which would be the place of my
residence, afford me more opportunities for so
doing, than this post in which God has placed me?
Should I have more work there, more enemies to
fight against, more souls to direct, more cares, more
pious exercises, more visits to make, or more
pastoral functions to discharge ?”’ |
“You would enter,” I replied, ‘‘ into the solici-
tude of all the churches; and from the direction of
one particular Church you would be promoted to
share in the care of the Universal Church, becom-
ing, as it were, the co-assessor of the Holy See.”
** Nevertheless,” he replied, ‘‘ you see Cardinals of
our own day, who when they were Bishops and had
dioceses were distinguished for their piety, quit
their residence at Rome, which is only theirs by a
positive and ecclesiastical law, in order to return
to their flocks among which the law of God has
fixed their homes, bidding them watch over these
flocks and feed and guide the souls entrusted to
them.
EF
434 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
He then told me a memorable circumstance con-
cerning the great Cardinal Bellarmine of saintly
memory. That Prelate was promoted to the
dignity, unknown to himself and against his will,
by Clement VIII. Under the pontificate of Paul
V., who succeeded Leo XI., he was promoted to
the Archbishopric of Capua, again contrary to his
own wishes, but by the desire of the Pope. He
bowed beneath this yoke, but not until he had
remonstrated with the Holy Father, who, in reply,
simply commanded him to take upon himself the
episcopal charge.
Immediately after his consecration he prepared
to take up his residence at Capua. The Pope, who
desired his services at Rome, sent for him, and
asked him if he was quite resolved to live in his
diocese. The Cardinal replied that he was, because
unwillingly as he had accepted this charge he had
done so with the conviction that his Holiness felt
he could dispense with his services at Rome, nor
would otherwise have placed him over the diocese
of Capua. The Pope replied that he would dispense
him from residing in his diocese. ‘* Holy Father,”
he answered, ‘‘that is not what I have been
teaching in the schools all my life. I have always
held that the residence of Bishops in their diocese
is commanded by the law of God, and that there-
fore they cannot be dispensed from observing it.”
‘“ At least,” returned the Pope, “‘ give us half the
year.” ‘‘And during those six months,” replied
Bellarmine, ‘‘ at whose hands will the blood of the
lost sheep of my flock be required?” ‘‘ Then, at
least, three months,” pleaded the Pope. The
Cardinal gave the same answer as he had given
Regarding Ecclesiastical Dignities 435
about the six, and, in fact, soon took his departure
for Capua, where he remained in uninterrupted
residence for three years, in the course of which
time, as a relaxation from the labours of his office,
he wrote his beautiful Commentary on the Psalms.
Such was the high value set by the holy Cardinal
upon the residence of a Bishop among his flock:
and St. Charles Borromeo, and more recently
his worthy successor, Cardinal Borromeo, have
been as uncompromising as Bellarmine was.
As for our Blessed Father, he only valued the
honours and dignities of the Church and of the
world in proportion as they afford means for
serving God and advancing His glory. This was
the golden standard with which he measured the
holy City of Jerusalem.
His PROMOTION TO THE BISHOPRIC OF GENEVA
AND HIs REFUSAL OF THE ARCHBISHOPRIC OF
PARIS.
Although in the life of our Blessed Father his
promotion to the Bishopric of Geneva is described
at great length, yet, in my opinion, the subject has
been treated very superficially, and no attempt has
been made to give a full account of the matter.
The truth is that the Saint had all his life but
one aim in regard to the following out of his holy
vocation, namely, to serve God in whatever sacred
office he might be called to fill. He had passed
through all the various ecclesiastical offices of
Canon, Parish Priest, Provost, Dean of the
Cathedral Church, Preacher, Confessor, and
Missionary, when M. de Granier, at that time
Bishop of Geneva, inspired by God, desired to make
436 The Sprit of St. Francis De Sales
him his successor. In this, as in all other matters,
our Saint recognised the inspiration, and with a
single eye, that saw God only, committed himself
entirely to His providence.
He did nothing at all either to hinder or to further
the design, leaving it all to M. de Granier, who
obtained the consent of the Duke of Savoy to
propose Francis to his Holiness. It was, however,
a condition that he should at once present himself
at Rome to be examined in full Consistory. He
was therefore obliged to undertake the journey
thither. This journey, as we know, is fairly well
described by the writers of his life. They tell also
of his success, and of the approval bestowed upon
him by Pope Clement, who used the inspired words :
Drink water out of thine own cistern, and the
streams of thine own well. Let thy fountains be
conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy
waters (*). From so excellent a vocation what but
good results could be expected? A good tree
cannot bear evil fruit. We know well how
worthily Blessed Francis walked in the vocation to
which he had been called, and how the light of
his holy life, like the dawn of morning, shone
more and more unto the perfect day.
In the year 1619, having come to Paris with the
Princes of Savoy, he remained there for eight
months, during which time it is impossible to give’
any idea of all that he did for the glory of God
and the good of souls. The eyes of all men in this
great theatre were turned upon him, as were those
of the Romans upon Cato, when one day he showed
himself in their assembly.
*Prov. v. 15, 16.
His Promotion to the Bishopric, &c. 487
It was not only by the people of Paris that he
was thought so much of, but also by their pastor,
the Cardinal de Retz (Peter de Gondi), a Prelate of
incomparable gentleness, benignity, liberality,
modesty, and every other deligtitful quality. The
sweet attractive grace of Blessed Francis’ manners
and conversation produced such an effect upon
him that he at once desired to make him his
coadjutor, with right of succession.
Not expecting any opposition from the holy
Bishop, and having gained the consent of the
King, he thought that nothing remained to be
done but to carry out the formalities prescribed by
the Roman Congregations. Francis, however,
with marvellous adroitness, warded off the blow,
leaving the great Cardinal penetrated with admira-
tion of his virtue if without the satisfaction of
gaining his compliance.
Among the various reasons for this refusal which
are to be found in his letters, one or two please me
especially. For instance, he said that he did not
think he ought to change a poor wife for a rich
one; and again, that if he did ever quit his spouse
it would not be to take another, but in order not
to have one at all, following the Apostolic counsel :
Art thou bound to a wife, seek not to be loosed.
Art thou loosed from a wife, seek not a wife.*
It is true that honours and dignities are but
trifles; yet to despise and refuse them is not a
trifling thing. It is easy to disdain them from a
distance, but difficult to deal with them face to face,
and either to quit them when we possess them, or
to refuse them when they are offered. Blessed 1s
the rich man that is found without blemish, and
™; Cor. Vii. 27.
438 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
that hath not gone after gold nor put his trust in
money, nor in treasures. Who is he? and we will
praise him, for he hath done wonderful things in
his life.™
Such a one, my Sisters, believe me, was your
Father and mine, my preserver and your i'ounder,
Blessed Francis de Sales.
A BisHop’s CARE FOR HIs FLOCK.
Good digestions assimilate all kinds of food,
and convert it into wholesome nourishment, and so
in like manner holy souls turn all that they meet
with into material for instruction and into help
towards their eternal profit. Thus, the great St.
Anthony, saw the Creator on every page of the book
of nature and in all living creatures. The tiniest
flower, growing and blossoming at his feet, raised
his thoughts to Him Who is the Flower of the
Field and the Lily of the Valley, the Blossom
springing from the root of Jesse.
Those who are smitten by some passionate
human love are so absolutely possessed by it that
they think of nothing else, and since their tongue
speaks out of the abundance of their heart this is
their one subject of conversation, all others being
distasteful to them. They write the name of the
beloved object on rocks and trees, and wherever
they can they leave behind them some carved token
or emblem of their affection.
Just so was it with our Blessed Father. His
delight was to make all subjects of conversation, all
incidents that might occur, further in one way or
another the glory of God, and kindle His divine
Eccle. xxxi. 8, 9.
A Bishop’s Care for His Flock 439
love in the hearts of others. On one occasion,
when he was visiting that part of his diocese which
lies among the lofty and bleak mountains of
Faucigny, where it is always winter, he heard that
a poor cowherd had lost his life by falling over a
steep precipice while trying to save one of his herd.
From this incident he drew a marvellous lesson
upon the care which a Bishop ought to take of
the flock entrusted to his charge by God, showing
that he ought to be ready to sacrifice even life
itself for its salvation. He thus relates the incident,
and gives his comments on it in one of his letters.
‘‘ During the past few days I have seen moun-
tains, terrible in their grandeur, covered with
ice ten or twelve inches thick; and the inhabitants
of the neighbouring valleys told me that a herds-
man going out to try and recover a cow which had
strayed away fell over a precipice from a height of
thirty feet, and was found frozen to death at the
bottom. Oh, God! I cried, and was the ardour
of this poor herdsman in his search for the beast
that had strayed, so burning that even the cold
of those frozen heights could not chill it? Why,
then, am I so slothful and lax in the quest after my
wandering sheep? This thought filled my heart
with grief, yet in no wise melted its frozen surface.
I saw in this region many wonderful sights. The
valleys were full of happy homesteads, the moun-
tains coated with ice and snow. Like the fertile
and smiling valleys, the village mothers play
their homely part, while a Bishop, raised to such
a lofty eminence in the Church of God, remains
ice-bound as the mountains. Ah! will there never
rise a sun with rays powerful enough to melt this
440 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
ice which freezes me!’’ What zeal for souls, what
humility, what holy fervour breathe in these words!
ON THE FIRST DuTy oF BISHOPS.
‘“ Being a Bishop,” he used to say to me, ‘‘ you
are at the same time a superintendent, sentinel,
and overseer in the House of God, for this is what
the word Bishop means. It is then your part to
watch over and guard your whole diocese, making
continual supplications, crying aloud day and
night like a watchman on the walls, as the prophet
bids you do, knowing that you have to render
an account to the great Father of the family of
all the souls committed to your care.
But especially you ought to watch over two
classes of people who are the heads of all the
others, namely, the Parish Priests and the fathers
of families, for they are the source of most of the
good and of most of the evil which is to be found in
parishes or households.
From the instruction and good example given by
Parish Priests, who are the shepherds of the flock,
proceeds all the advance of that flock in knowledge
and virtue. They are like the rods of which Jacob
made use to give the colours he wanted to the
fleeces of the lambs. Teaching does much, but
example does incomparably more. It is the same
with fathers and mothers of families: on their
words, but still more on their conduct, depends all
the welfare of their households.
As Bishop you are the master-builder, the
superintendent. It is your duty then to watch over
the leaders of your flock and over those who, like
Saul, are a head taller than the rest. Through
Upon the Pastoral Charge 441
them healing and blessing flows down upon others,
even as Aaron’s ointment descended from his head
to the very hem of his garment.
This is why you ought continually to exhort
and instruct, in season and out of season, for you
are the Parish Priest of all Parish Priests, and the
Father of all Fathers of families.”
UPON THE PASTORAL CHARGE.
On one occasion I was complaining to him of
the difficulties which I met with in the discharge
of my episcopal duties. He replied that on
entering the service of God we must prepare ort-
selves for temptation, since no one could follow
Jesus Christ or be of the number of His true
disciples except by bearing His Cross, nor could
anyone enter Heaven except by the path and
through the gate of suffering. ‘‘ Remember,” he
said, “‘that our first father even in the state of inno-
cence was put into the earthly Paradise to work in
it and to keep it. Do you imagine that he was
banished from it in order to do nothing? Consider
how God condemned him and all his posterity to
labour, and to till an ungrateful earth which pro-
duced of itself nothing but thorns and thistles.
There is much more toil and difficulty in weeding
and cultivating souls than any earthly soil, rough,
stony, and barren though it may be. The art of
arts is the direction of souls, it is of no use to
undertake it unless we have made up our minds to
innumerable labours and disappointments.
The Son of God being a sign of contradiction,
can we wonder if His work is exposed to the same;
442 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
and if He had so much difficulty in winning souls,
is it likely that his coadjutors and those who
labour with Him will have less ?”
Then fearing to depress me by the enumeration
of so many difficulties, he went on to cheer me with
the example of the Prince of Pastors, the Bishop
of our souls, the Author and Finisher of our faith,
who preferred shame and toil to joy, that He might
further the work of our salvation.
He added that of the Apostles, and other Pastors
of the Church, reminding me that if we think much
of the honour of being their successors we must,
with the inheritance, accept its burdens, nor shelter
ourselves by, in legal phrase, disclaiming liability
for debts beyond the assets inherited. Otherwise, he
said, we should be like that kinsman of Ruth who
wished to have the inheritance of the first husband,
but not to marry the widow and raise up to him an
heir.
He generally wound up his remarks with some
reminder of that love which makes all that is bitter
to be sweet: sometimes quoting to me those words
of St. Augustine, ‘‘ Where we love, there is no
labour, or if there is any we love the labour itself,
for he who labours in loving, loves to labour for
the beloved object.”
UPON THE CARE OF SOULS.
A Priest once complained to Blessed Francis of
the thorns besetting his path in life, of the diff-
culties of his holy calling, of the anxieties insepar-
able from it, but chiefly of the intractableness of
stiff-necked Christia..s, who refuse to submit to the
easy yoke of Jesus Christ, and to do what their duty
Upon the Care of Souls 443
requires. The Bishop replied that their obstinacy
was not so much to be wondered at as the weak-
ness of their Pastors who were so easily dis-
couraged and impatient, just because they saw that
the seed sown by their labours did not forthwith
produce the plentiful harvest they desired.
‘“ The peasant is not blamed for failing to reap
an abundant harvest, but only for not carefully
cultivating his field, and for not doing all that is
necessary to make his land productive. Dis-
couragement is a mark of excessive love of self and
of zeal unaccompanied by knowledge.
The best lesson for those who have the care of
souls, is that which the Apostle gives to all in the
person of one: Preach the word: be instant in
season and out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke
in all patience and doctrine.*
In this text the word patience is the key to the
whole mystery, for patience has its perfect work
when it is accompanied by charity, which is
patient, kind, and is the virtue by which we possess
our souls in peace.”
The charge of souls means having to bear with
the weak, for the strong are able to go on by them-
selves in their progress towards what is good.
Our holy Bishop explained this by two beautiful
similitudes: ‘‘ The plumage of birds is heavy, and
yet without this load they could neither raise them-
selves from the ground nor hover in the air. The
burden borne by holy souls is like a load of
cinnamon, which, by its perfume invigorates him
who carries it. So souls which are weak serve to
make their Pastors, who bear the burden of them,
som. iv) 2.
444 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
rise On wings towards Heaven, and on earth to
run in the way of God’s commandments.’’
The other comparison is this: ‘‘ Notice,” he said,
‘‘a shepherd driving a flock of sheep: if one of
them breaks a leg the shepherd at once takes it on
his shoulders to carry it back to the fold, and this
single one is certainly a heavier load than all the
rest together, who go along of themselves. In
like manner souls which of themselves advance in
the way of God afford little occasion for their
Pastors to exercise care and vigilance. It
is of the faulty and intractable they have
chiefly to think. St. Bernard says that the care
of souls is not a care of the strong, but of the
infirm, for if any one helps thee more than he is
helped by thee, know that thou art not his father
but his equal.”
Even the prophets complain of men of obstinate
and rebellious hearts. To work among them is
to go down to the sea in ships and to do our
business in great waters, for these waters are God’s
people with whom we have to deal.
Upon LEARNING AND PIETY.
By rights, the more learned a man becomes the
more pious should he be. This does not, however,
always happen, and if we must choose between the
two, there is no doubt that it is better to be un-
educated but pious, rather than to be learned with-
out being religious-minded.
Blessed Francis remarked one day when we were
speaking of a Parish Priest whose holy life was
highly praised, but with whose defects as a teacher
great fault was found: ‘‘ It is quite true that know-
U pon Learning and Piety 445
ledge and piety are, as it were, the two eyes of a
Priest; still, as a man can, by dispensation, receive
Holy Orders even though he has only one eye, so
also it is quite possible for a Parish Priest to be a
most faithful servant in his ministry by simply
leading a zealous, exemplary, and well-regulated
life. The function of teaching may be discharged
by others, who, as St. Paul says, are instructors
but not fathers.* But no one can be a pattern to
others except by giving good example, and this
cannot be done by proxy.
Besides, the Gospel tells us that we are to pluck
out the eye which offends. It is better to enter
heaven with one eye, than to be cast into hell-fire
with two.t ‘‘ There is, indeed,” he continued, “a
degree of ignorance so gross as to be inexcusable
and to render him who is plunged into it in very
truth a blind leader of the blind. When, how-
ever, a man is in good repute for his piety he surely
has within him that true light which leads him to
Jesus Christ and enables him to show light to
others. It is as though he said to them, like
Gideon, Do as I do, or with St. Paul, Be ye
followers of me, as I also am of Christ.t Sucha
one does not walk in darkness and those who follow
him are sure to reach the haven. Though he has
not talents of learning and erudition such as would
make him shine in the pulpit, vet he has enough
if he can, as the Apostle savs, exhort in sound
doctrine and convince the gainsayers.§ Remark,”
he added, “how God taught Balaam by the mouth
of his ass.’ Thus, his charity dexterously covered
the defects of his neighbour, and by this lesson
*: Cor. iv. 15. tMatt. xviii 9. $e Cor. iv. 16.
§Tit. . 9.
446 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
he taught us to value an ounce of piety more than
many pounds of empty learning.
ADVICE TO BisHop CAMUS AS TO RESIGNING
His SEE.
When I was consulting him once as to whether
or not I should follow the bent of my own inclina-
tion in the matter of retiring into a private and
solitary life, he, wishing to ascertain by what
spirit I was led, answered me in the beautiful words
of St. Augustine: Otium sanctum diligit charitas
veritatis, et negotium justum suscipit veritas
charitatis.* Charity, the holy love of eternal
truth, draws us into retirement, that we may in
that calm leisure contemplate things divine; but
when our hearts are filled with true charity we
are none the less urged to undertake good works
in order to advance the glory of God by serving
our neighbour.
Although he esteemed Mary’s part—called in
the Gospel ‘‘ the better part ’’—much more highly
than Martha’s, yet it was his opinion that Martha’s,
undertaken purely for the love of God, was more
suitable to this present life, and that Mary’s had
more in common with that of a blessed eternity.
He only made an exception as regards some special
and extraordinary vocations, some irresistible and
most powerful attractions, acting upon the soul, and
in the case of those who do not possess the talents
requisite for serving as Martha served, and have
only those suitable for a purely contemplative life.
Also those who, having expended all their physical
strength in the service of the Church, withdraw
into solitude towards the close of their life, there
* De Civit. Dei. Lib. 19. cap. 109.
Adwce to Bishop Camus, £e. 447
to prepare for that last journey which is ordained
for all flesh.
For this reason he repulsed and silenced me—
not indeed harshly, for his incomparable sweetness
was incompatible with harshness—but firmly and
decidedly whenever I spoke to him of quitting my
post and of resigning the helm into the hand of
some more skilful pilot. He called my desire to
do so a temptation, and in the end closed the dis-
cussion so peremptorily that, during his lifetime,
I never ventured to revive it with anyone.
He dealt in almost exactly the same manner with
that virtuous soul* the corner-stone of the spiritual
edifice of the Congregation of the Visitation which
he founded, for he kept her in the world for more
than seven years, bringing up and educating the
children whom God had given her and affording
spiritual help to her father and father-in-law. He
kept her back, I say, for this long period, before
permitting her to retire into the solitude of the
cloister; so exact was he in himself following, and
in leading those who were under his direction to
follow, the holy light of faith rather than the false
and lurid glimmers of their natural inclinations.
On a previous occasion a certain Bishop whom I
knew well asked him whether in his opinion it
would be allowable for him to give up his Bishopric
with its heavy burdens and retire into private life,
bringing forward as an example St. Gregory of
Nazianzen, surnamed the Theologian, the oracle
of his time, who gave up the charge of three
Bishoprics, Sozima, Nazianzen, and the Patri-
archate of Constantinople, that he might go and
*St. Jane Frances de Chantal.
448 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
end his days in rural life, on his paternal estate of
Arianzen,
Our Blessed Father replied that we must pre-
sume that these great Saints never did anything
without being moved to do it by the Spirit of God,
and that we must not judge of their actions by
outward appearances. He added that St. Gregory
in quitting Constantinople was only yielding to
pressure and violence, as is proved by the manner
in which he said his last Mass in public, and which
brought tears into the eyes of all who heard him.
This same Bishop replying that the greatness of
his own charge terrified him, and that he was over-
powered by the thought of having to answer for
so‘many souls: ‘“‘ Alas!’” said Blessed Francis,
‘what would you say, or do, if you had such a
burden as mine on your shoulders? And yet that
must not lessen my confidence in the mercy of
God.”
The Bishop sitll complaining and declaring that
he was like a candle which consumes itself in order
to give light to others, and that he was so much
taken up with the service of his neighbour that he
had scarcely any leisure to think of himself and to
look after the welfare of his own soul, our Blessed
Father replied: ‘‘ Well, considering that the
eternal welfare of your neighbour is a part, and
so large a part, of your own, are you not securing
the latter by attending to the former? And how,
indeed, could you possibly work out your own
salvation except by furthering that of others,
seeing that you have been called to do so precisely
in this manner? ”
The Bishop still objecting and saying that he
Advice to Bishop Camus, ce. 449
was like a whetstone which is worn out by the mere
sharpening of blades, and that while trying to lead
others to holiness he ran the risk of losing his own
soul, our Holy Prelate rejoined: ‘‘ Read the
history of the Church and the lives of the Saints,
and you will find more Saints among Bishops than
in any other Order or avocation, there being no
other position in the Church of God which fur-
nishes such abundant means of sanctification and
perfection. For remember that the best means of
making progress in perfection is the teaching
others both by word and example. Bishops are
by their very office compelled to do this and to
Strive with all their heart and soul to be a pattern
and model to their flocks. The whole life of a
Christian on earth is a warfare, and should be one
unceasing progress towards the goal of perfection.
Were you to do as you propose it would be ina
manner to look behind you, and to imitate the
children of Ephraim, who turned back when they
should have faced the enemy. You were going on
so well, who is it who is holding you back? Stay
in the ship in which God has placed you to make
the voyage of life; the passage is so short that it
is not worth while changing the boat. For, indeed,
if you feel giddy in a large vessel, how much
more so will you in a slight skiff tossed by every
motion of the waves! A lower condition of life,
though less busy and apparently more tranquil, is
none the less equally subject to temptation.”’
This reasoning so convinced the Bishop! that
he remained faithful to his post in the army of
Holy Church.
1 This Bishop was evidently M. Camus himself. [Ed.]
FF
450 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
THE Joyous SPIRIT OF BLESSED FRANCIS.
So light-hearted and gay was he, so truly did his
happy face express the serenity and peace of his
soul that it was almost impossible to remain for
any time in his company without catching some-
thing of this joyous spirit.
I feel sure that only those of dull and gloomy
temperament can take exception to what I am
going to relate in order to illustrate our Blessed
Father’s delightful gift of pleasantry in conversa-
tion.
On one occasion when I was paying a visit to
him at Annecy two young girls, sisters, and both
most virtuous and most devout, were professed in
one of the convents, he performing the ceremony,
and I, by his desire, giving the exhortation. While
preaching, although I said nothing to my mind
very heart-stirring, I noticed that a venerable Priest
who was prcsent was so much affected as to
attract the attention of everyone. After the cere-
mony, when we were breakfasting with the holy
Bishop, the Priest being also at table, I asked
Blessed Francis what had been the cause of such
emotion. He replied that it was not to be
wondered at seeing that this good Priest had lost
his aureola, and had been reduced from the high
rank of a martyr to the lowly one of a Confessor!
He went on to explain that the Priest had been
married, but that on the death of his wife, who
was a most saintly woman, he had become a Priest,
and that all the children of that happy marriage
had been so piously brought up that every one of
them had devoted himself or herself to the service
The Joyous Spirit of Blessed Francis 451
of the Altar, the young girls just professed being
of the number.
The tears shed by the Priest were therefore of
joy, not of sorrow, for he saw his most ardent
desire fulfilled, and that his daughters were now
the Brides of the Lamb. “But,” I cried, ‘‘ what
did you mean by saying that a man married to
such a wife as that was a Martyr? That may be
the case when a man has a bad wife, but it cannot
be true in his case.”
Our Blessed Father’s manner changed at once
from gaiety to seriousness. ‘‘ Take care,” he
said to me in a low voice, ‘‘that the same thing
does not happen to you; I will tell you how, by-
and-by, in private.”
When we were alone afterwards I reminded him
of his promise. ‘‘ Take care,” he said again with
some severity of aspect, ‘‘lest if you yield to the
temptation which is now assailing you something
worse does not befall you.” He was alluding to
my desire to give up the burden of my Bishopric
and to retire into more private life.
““ Your wife,” he went on to say, meaning the
Church, whose ring when he consecrated me he had
put on my finger, “‘is far more holy, far more able
to make you holy than was that good man’s faithful
wife, whose memory is blessed. It is true that
the many spiritual children whom she lays in your
arms are a cause of so much anxiety that your
whole life is a species of martyrdom, but remember
that in this most bitter bitterness you will find
peace for your soul, the peace of God which is
beyond all thought or imagination. If you quit
your place in order to seek repose, possibly God
452 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
will permit your pretended tranquillity to be dis-
turbed by as many vexations as the good brother
Leone’s, who, amid all his household cares in
the monastery, was often visited by heavenly con-
solations. Of these he was deprived when, by
permission extorted from his Superior, he had
retired into his cell in order, as he said, to give
himself up more absolutely to contemplation.
Know (Oh! how deeply these words are engraven
on my memory) that God hates the peace of those
whom He had destined for war.
He is the God of armies and of battles, as well
as of peace, and he compares the Sulamite, the
peaceful soul, toan army drawn up in battle array
and in that formation terrible to its enemies.” I
may add that our Blessed Father’s predictions were
perfectly verified, and after his death when the
very things he had spoken of happened to me I
remembered his words with tears.
As I write I call to mind another instance of his
delightful manner which you will like to hear.
Young as I was when consecrated a Bishop,
it was his desire that I should discharge all the
duties of my holy office without leaving out any
single one of them, although I was inclined to
make one exception, that of hearing confessions.
I considered myself too young for this most
responsible work, and wanting in that prudence
and wisdom which are born of experience.
Our Blessed Father, however, thought differ-
ently in the matter, and I, holding this judgment
in so much higher esteem than my own, gave way,
bent my neck under the yoke, and took my place
in the confessional. There I was besieged by
Upon Daily Mass. His Advice, £c. 453
penitents, who scarcely allowed me any time for
rest or refreshment.
One day, worn out with this labour, I wrote to
St. Francis, saying, among other things, that
intending to make a Confessor he had really made
a Martyr.
In answering my letter he said that he knew well
that the vehemence of my spirit suffered the pangs
of a woman in travail, but then I must take
courage and remember that it is written, a woman
when she is in labour hath sorrow because her
hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the
child she remembereth no more the anguish for joy
that a man is born into the world.*
Upon Darry Mass. His ADVICE TO A YOUNG
PRIEST.?
To a Priest whom I know well, and whom our
Blessed Father loved much in Our Lord, he gave
most excellent advice, and ina very kindly manner,
conveyed it to him by means of an ingenious
artifice.
The Priest was young, and owing to his extreme
youth, although he was a Parish Priest, he
dreaded saying Mass often, contenting himself
with doing so on Sundays and holidays.
Our Blessed Father, wishing to lead him to say
his Mass every day, devised this plan. He pre-
sented him with a little box covered with crimson
satin, embroidered in gold and silver and studded
with pearls and garnets. Before he actually put
it into his hands, however, he said to him, ‘‘ I have
*John xvi. 21.
1Possibly M. Camus himself. [Ed.}
454 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
a favour to ask of you which I am sure you will
not refuse me, since it only concerns the glory of
God, which I know you have so much at heart.”
“I am at your command,” replied the Priest.
“Oh, no,” said the Bishop, ‘‘ I am not speaking
to you as one who commands, but as one who
requests, and I make this request in the name
and for the love of God, which is our common
watchword.’’ After that, what could the Priest
possibly refuse him? His silence testified his
readiness to obey, better than any words could have
done.
Blessed Francis then opening the box showed
him that it was quite full of unconsecrated hosts,
and said, ‘* You are a Priest, God has called you
to that vocation, and also to the Pastoral Office
in His Church. Would it be the right thing if
an artisan, a magistrate, or a doctor only worked
at his profession one or two days in the week?
You have the power to say Holy Mass every day.
Why do you not avail yourself of it?
Consider that the action of saying Mass is the
loftiest, the most august, of all the functions of
religion, the one which renders more glory to God
and more solace to the living and the dead than
any other.
I conjure you, then, by the glory of Him in whom
we live and move and have our being, to approach
the Altar every day, and never, except under
extreme necessity, to fail to do so.
There is nothing, thank God, to prevent your
doing this. I know your soul as well as a soul
can be known, and of this you are yourself quite
aware, you who have so frankly unfolded to me the
Upon Daily Mass. His Advice, dc. 455
inmost recesses of your conscience. Far from
seeing any impediment, I see that everything invites
you to do what I ask, and that you may so use the
daily and supersubstantial Bread I make you this
present, entreating you not to forget at the holy
Altar him who makes you this prayer on the part
of God Himself.”
The young Priest was somewhat surprised, and
without attempting to evade the implied rebuke
contented himself with submitting to the judgment
of the holy Bishop his secret unworthiness, his
youth, his unmortified passions, his fear of mis-
using so divine a mystery by not living as they
should live who each day offer it up.
“All this excusing yourself, replied our Blessed
Father, is only so much self-accusing as would
appear if I chose to examine your reasons in detail
and weigh them in the scales of the sanctuary.
But without entering into any discussion of them
let it suffice that you refer the matter to my judg-
ment. I tell you then, and in this I think that I
have the Spirit of God, that all the reasons which
you bring forward to dispense yourself from so
profitable an exercise of piety are really those which
oblige you to practise it. This holy exercise will
ripen your youth, moderate your passions, weaken
your temptations, strengthen your weakness,
illuminate your path, and the very act of practising
it will teach you to do so with greater perfection.
Moreover, if the sense of your unworthiness would
make you abstain from it out of humility, as
happened to St. Bonaventure, and if your own
unfitness makes the custom of daily celebrating
productive in your soul of less fruit than it should,
456 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
consider that you are a public person, and that your
flock and your Church have need of your daily
Mass. More than that, you ought to be
stimulated and spurred on by the thought that
every day on which you refrain from celebrating
you deprive the exterior glory of God of increase,
the Angels of their delight, and the Blessed of a
most special happiness.”
The young Priest deferred to this counsel,
saying “‘ Fiat, fiat, and from that time for a space
of thirty years has never failed to say Mass daily,
even when on long journeys through France,
Italy, Spain, Germany, and in heretical countries.
He never failed, I repeat, even under conditions
which seemed to make the saying of Mass im-
possible.
Such power have remonstrances when tem-
pered with kindness and prudence.
A Priest SAYING MASS SHOULD BE CONSIDERATE
OF OTHERS.
He was told that I was very lengthy in my pre-
paration for saying Holy Mass, and that this was
a cause of inconvenience to many who either wished
to be present at it or to speak to me afterwards.
I was accustomed, by his orders, to say daily
Mass at a fixed hour, and not in the private chapel
of the Bishop’s house, unless I happened to be ill,
but in a large chapel adjoining the Cathedral
Church, where synods, ordinations, and similar
pastoral functions were held. The bell rang for
this Mass always at a few minutes before the
appointed hour, but those who knew the length of
my preparation in the sacristy did not hurry to
A Priest Saying Mass, &c. 457
come to it, and those who did not know lost
patience, and in winter time often got chilled to
the bone.
Our Blessed Father, wishing to correct this fault
in me, waited quietly till the right moment came
for doing so. He was paying me one of his
annual visits at Belley, when it chanced that one
morning he was detained very late in his room
writing some letters which he had to send off with-
out loss of time. When eleven o’clock drew near,
his servants, knowing that he never failed to say
Mass unless hindered by illness or some real im-
pediment, came to remind him that he had not yet
done so.
The Altar in the private Chapel had been pre-
pared for him. He came out of his room, wearing
as usual his rochet and mosetta, and after saluting
those who had come to see him and to hear his
Mass, said a short prayer at the foot of the Altar,
then vested and celebrated the holy sacrifice. Mass
ended, he knelt down again, and, after another
short prayer, joined us with a face of angelic
serenity. Having greeted each of us affectionately,
he entered into conversation with us, until we were
called, as we soon were, to table. I, who watched
his actions most closely and ever found them regu-
lar and harmonious as a stave of music, was amazed
at the brevity of this preparation and thanksgiving,
In the evening, therefore, when we were alone
together, I said, using the filial privilege which I
knew was mine, ‘‘ Father, it seemed to me this
morning that your preparation for Mass and your
thanksgiving were very hasty and short.”
He turned suddenly, and, embracing me, ex-
458 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
claimed, ‘‘Oh, how delighted I am that you are
so straightforward in telling me home truths! For
three or four days I have been wanting to do the
same thing to you, but did not know how to begin!
Now, tell me what do you say as to that lengthiness
of yours which inconveniences everybody? All
complain, and quite openly, though possibly these
complaints have not yet reached your ears, so few
dare speak the truth to Bishops. Doubtless it is
because no one loves you as I do that I have been
asked to speak about this. My commission is quite
authentic, though I do not show you the signatures.
A little of your superfluity handed over to me would
do us both good, by making you go more quickly
and me more slowly.
“ Do you think,” he continued, ‘‘ that the people
who are so anxious to assist at your Mass have any
sympathy with your long preparation before-hand
in the sacristy? Still less those who are waiting
to speak to you after Mass, with your interminable
thanksgiving.
‘“ Many of these people come from a distance, and
have business engagements in the town.”
‘“ But, Father,” I said, “ how ought we to make
Our preparation? Scripture says, Before prayer
prepare thy soul, and be not as a man that tempteth
God.* How much more, then, must we prepare
with all care for the stupendous act of celebrating
Mass, before which, in the words of the Preface,
the powers of Heaven tremble? How can one play
on a lute without tuning it?” ‘‘ Why do you not
make this preparation earlier, in your morning
exercise, which I know, or at least I think, you
*Eccle. xviii. 23.
A Priest Saying Mass, &c. 459
never neglect?” ‘‘I rise at four o’clock in the
summer, sometimes sooner,” I replied, ‘‘ and I do
not go to the Altar till about nine or ten o’clock.’’
‘And do you suppose,” he returned, “‘ that the
interval from four to nine is very great to Him, in
Whose sight a thousand years are as yesterday? ’’*
This passage, so well applied, was like a sudden
illumination to me. ‘‘ And what about the thanks-
giving?” I said. ‘* Wait till your evening exer-
cise to make it,” he answered; ‘“‘ you make your
examination of conscience, surely so great an act
will have its weight; and is not thanksgiving one
of the points of self-examination? Both these acts
can be made more at leisure and more calmly in the
morning and evening: no one will be incon-
venienced by them, and they will interfere with
none of your ordinary duties.” ‘‘ But,” I objected,
‘“ will it not be a cause of disedification to others
to see me so quick over things? God should not
be adored hurriedly.” ‘* We may hurry as much
as we like,” he replied; “‘ God goes faster than we
do. He is as the lightning which comes forth from
the east and the next moment flashes in the west.
All things are present to Him; with Him there is
neither past nor future. How can we escape from
His spirit?” I acquiesced, and since then all has
gone well in this matter.
BLESSED FRANCIS ENCOURAGES THE BISHOP OF
BELLEY.
Owing to the fact that the See of Belley had been
vacant for four years, a dispensation was obtained
from the Bishop enabling me, at the age of twenty-
*Psalm Ixxxix. 4.
460 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
five, to be consecrated Bishop, and at the same time
to be put in possession of that See to which the
King, Henry IV., had already appointed me.
Blessed Francis himself consecrated me, in my
own Cathedral Church of Belley, August 3oth,
1609.
After a while scruples began to disturb my mind
on account of this consecration, seemingly so pre-
mature. I had, as it were, been made a captain
when I had scarcely enlisted as a soldier. I carried
my troubles to the director of my conscience, this
Blessed Father who consoled and cheered me by
suggesting many excellent reasons for this unusual
state of things. The necessities of the diocese, the
testimony to my character of so many persons of
dignity and piety, the judgment of Henry the
Great, whose memory he held in high honour, and,
last of all, and above all, the command of His
Holiness. He concluded by urging me not to look
back, but rather to stretch forward to the things
which were before me, following the advice of St.
Paul.
‘“ You have come to the vineyard,” he went on
to say, ‘‘in the first hour of your day. Beware lest
you labour there so slothfully, that those who enter
at the eleventh hour outstrip you both in the work
and in reward.”
One day I said jestingly to him: ‘‘ Father,
virtuous and exemplary as you are considered to
be, you have committed one fault in your life, that
of having consecrated me too early.”
He answered me with a laugh which opened a
heaven of joy to me. ‘‘It is certainly true,” he
said, ‘‘that I have committed that sin, but I am
Upon a Compassionate Mind 461
much afraid God will never forgive me for it,
for up to the present moment I have never been
able to repent of it. I conjure you by the bowels
of our common Master to live in such a manner
that you may never give me cause for regret in this
matter and rather, often to stir up in yourself the
grace which was bestowed upon you from on high
by the imposition of my hands. I have, you must
know, been called to the consecration of other
Bishops, but only as assistant. I have never con-
secrated any one but you: you are my only one,
my apprenticeship work.
Take courage. God will help us.
He is our light and our salvation, whom shall we
fear? He is the Protector of our life, of whom
shall we be afraid?”
Upon A COMPASSIONATE MIND.
Although his soul was one of the strongest and
most well-balanced possible, yet it was capable of
the tenderest and most compassionate feelings for
the sorrows of others. He did not repine over the
miseries and infirmities of human nature, he only
desired that all souls should be strengthened by
grace.
To a lady who was heart-broken at the death of
a sister whom she passionately loved, he wrote:
‘“ I will not say to you, do not weep, for, on the
contrary, it is just and reasonable that you should
weep a little—but only a little—my dear daughter,
as a proof of the sincere affection which you bore
her, following the example of our dear Master, who
shed a few tears over His friend Lazarus, but not
many, as do those whose thoughts, being bounded
462 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
by the moments of this miserable life, forget that
we, too, are on our way to Eternity, in which if we
live well in this life we shall be reunited to our
beloved dead, nor ever be parted from them again.
We cannot prevent our poor hearts: from being
affected by the changes of this life, and by the loss
of those who have been our pleasant companions
in it. Still never must we be false to our solemn
promise to unite our will inseparably to the Will
of God.”
Again, let me remind you how tenderly he ex-
presses himself on the sorrowful occasions of the
death of his dearest relatives and friends.
‘“ Indeed,” he says, ‘‘at times like these I myself
weep much. Then my heart, hard as a stone with
regard to heavenly things, breaks and pours forth
rivers of tears. But God be praised! They are
always gentle tears, and, speaking to you as to
my own dear daughter, I never shed them without
a loving grateful thought of the providence of God.
For, since our Saviour loved death and gave His
death to be the object of our love, I cannot feel any
bitterness, or grudge against it, whether it be that
of my sisters or of anyone else, provided it be in
union with the holy death of my Saviour.”’
And in another place he says:
‘I must say just one word in confidence to you.
There is not a man living who has a heart more
tender and more open to friendship than mine, or
who feels more keenly than I do the pain of
separation from those I love; nevertheless, I hold
so cheap this poor earthly life which we lead that I
never turn back to God with a more ardent affection
than when He has dealt me some blow of the kind
or permitted one to be dealt me.”
Upon doing One's Duty, &e. 463
UPON DOING ONE’sS DUTY, WITHOUT RESPECT OF
PERSONS.
After I had preached several Advents and Lents
in various towns of my diocese of Belley, he thought
it well that I should do so in my own native city,
Paris.
Well knowing, as he did, the various views and
judgments of the great world which rules there, he
wished to teach me to care very little what people
said about me, and he impressed the lesson upon
me by relating to me the following story of an aged
Priest and the college clock.
A good Father being incapacitated by infirmities
even more than by age from fulfilling the duty of
teaching binding on his Order, and yet being
anxious to have some little useful employment, was
entrusted by his Superior with the winding and
regulating the college clock.
Very soon, however, he came to complain of the
difficulty and almost impossibility of his work; not,
he said, that it was at all beyond his strength, but
that it was quite beyond him to satisfy everyone.
When the clock was a little slow, he said, the young
men who had difficult and troublesome work to do
indoors, complained, declaring that the town clocks
were much faster, and to please them he would
put it on a little. As soon as this was done com-
plaints burst forth from those whose work lay out-
side the college, in visiting the sick and prisoners,
or providing for the needs of the household in the
city. They came back declaring that the town
clocks were much slower, and reproaching me for
having put theirs on.
The Superior settled the matter by telling the
464 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
good Father to let the clock take its own course, but
always to use soft words to those who might com-
plain, and to assure each one of them that he would
do his best to keep the clock right if possible.
‘So let it be with you,” concluded our Blessed
Father. ‘‘ You are going to be exposed to the
criticism of many; if you attend to all that they say
of you, your work, like Penelope’s, will never be
done, but every day you will have to begin it over
again.
Even some of your friends will in perfect good
faith give you suggestions on matters which seem
to them important, but which in reality are not so
at all.
One will tell you that you speak too fast, another
that you gesticulate too much, a third that you
speak too slowly, and don’t move enough—one will
want quotations, another will dislike them; one will
prefer doctrinal, another moral lessons; some one
thing, some another.
They will be like drones who do nothing but dis-
turb the working bees, and who, though they can
sting, yet make no honey.”
‘“ Well! what is to be done in all this? ”
“ Why, you must always answer gently, promis-
ing to try and correct yourself of your faults
whatever they may be, for there is nothing which
pleases these counsellors so much as to see that
their suggestions are accepted as judicious, and,
at least, worthy of consideration. In the meantime
go your own way, follow the best of your own
character, pay no heed to such criticisms, which are
often contradictory one of the other.
Keep God before your eyes, abandon yourself
The Honour Due to Virtue 465
to the guidance of the spirit of grace, and say often
with the Apostle, ‘If I yet pleased men I should
not be the servant of Christ,’ who said of Him-
self that He was not of this world. Neither, indeed,
were His Apostles, for the friendship of the world
is enmity with God.
It is no small matter for a steersman in the midst
of a storm to keep the rudder straight. Of little
consequence ought it to be to us that we are judged
by men. God is our only true judge, and it is He
Who sees the secrets of our hearts, and all that is
hidden in darkness.”’’
THE HonouR DUE TO VIRTUE.
Honour is like thyme which the pagans thought
ought only to be burnt on the Altar of Virtue. In
ancient Rome the Temple of Honour could only be
entered through the Temple of Virtue.
The virtue of Blessed Francis de Sales was so
generally recognized by both Catholics and Protes-
tants that he may be truly said to have been univer-
sally reverenced.
A remarkable instance of this occurred at
Grenoble, the chief town of Dauphiné, in the year
in which he went there to preach during Advent
and Lent. Monsieur de Lesdigiuéres, the King’s
Viceroy at Grenoble, and Marshal of France, was
not yet converted to the Catholic Faith. He, how-
ever, received the Bishop with affectionate warmth,
and paid him extraordinary honours. He frequently
invited him to his table, and often visited him in
his house, sometimes even being present at his
sermons, for he really valued the teaching of the
holy Bishop, and thought most highly of his
GG
466 The Sprit of St. Francis De Sales
virtue. The Protestants of Grenoble took fright
at this, more particularly because of the long,
private interviews which took place between the
Magistrate and the holy Bishop.
Wherever he went the King’s representative
spoke of Blessed Francis in the highest terms, and
invariably made a point of giving him his title,
Bishop of Geneva. In short, he paid him such
deference as excited universal astonishment.
In vain did the Huguenot clergy storm and rage,
in vain did they threaten to excommunicate any-
one having dealings with the Bishop. They could
not prevent the majority of their congregations
from pressing every day to hear the Saint’s ser-
mons, which created a great sensation amongst
them.
The Huguenot preachers, far from gaining fresh
adherents, saw their flock steadily dwindling away.
At last, in despair, the Consistory determined to
send a deputation to remonstrate with M. de
Lesdigiuéres on the warm welcome he was giving
the holy Bishop, and on his own behaviour in
scandalizing the whole Protestant party by attend-
ing Blessed Francis’ sermons.
The deputation, formed of the elders and most
notable men of the sect, reached the Marshal’s
house early in the morning, so that he was not
even dressed when their request for an interview
was brought to him.
Being a man who would not be dictated to, he
sent down word to the Huguenots that if they came
to visit him as friends, or to communicate any
matter of business to him, he would receive them
gladly, but if they meant to remonstrate with him,
The Honour Due to Virtue 467
in the name of the Consistory or ministers, on the
politeness he was showing to the Bishop of Geneva,
they might rest assured that they would go out
through the window faster than they had come in
by the door!
This message was enough. ‘The deputation
broke up at once; but with how many lamentations
over this unexpected reception, given by one whom
they had reckoned upon as the chief stay and prop
of their sect.
Their next plan was to send one of the principal
noblemen of the province, a Protestant like them-
selves, upon the same errand as before. He, how-
ever, fared no better than the deputation.
Tell those gentlemen (said M. de Lesdigiuéres)
that I am old enough to know the rules of politeness.
Up to the age of thirty I was myself a Roman
Catholic. I know how Roman Catholics treat their
Bishops, and with what respect these Bishops are
treated by Kings and Princes. They hold a rank
altogether different from that of our ministers, who,
even the highest among them, are only Parish
Priests, since they themselves deny the very exist-
ence of the order of Bishop, however good a
foundation for it there may seem to be in the teach-
ing of Holy Scripture. As for me, my belief is
that they will in the end be sorry they have given
up this distinction of rank. ‘‘ Tell M. B. (he was
a minister of low birth, had formerly been M. de
Lesdigiuéres’ servant, and owed to him his actual
position in the so-called Reformed Church of
Grenoble) that when I see among Huguenot
ministers, sons and brothers of sovereign Princes,
as I do among Roman Catholic Bishops, Arch-
468 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
bishops, and Cardinals, I will perhaps change my
mind as to how to treat them socially. _
As regards the Bishop of Geneva, I can only say
that if I were in his place and were, as he is,
sovereign Prince of this city, I would see that I
was properly obeyed, and that my authority was
duly recognised. I know what are his rights and
titles better than B ... or any of his colleagues
can possibly do; it is for me to give them a lesson
on the subject, and for them, if they are wise, to
listen. It is not for young, uneducated men to
presume to show a man of my age and rank how
to behave himself.”’
After this the Viceroy redoubled his attentions to
the holy Bishop, to whom he paid every honour in
his power.
On the other hand, he himself received such good
impressions of our religion from what he saw of
the Bishop that they greatly facilitated his con-
version, which took place after he had been pro-
moted to the rank of Constable.
He died an excellent Catholic, and most happily.
Upon MEMORY AND JUDGMENT.
On one occasion Blessed Francis was complain-
ing to me of the shortness of his memory. I tried
to console him by reminding him that even if it
were true, there was no lack in him of judgment,
for in that he always excelled.
In reply, he said that it was certainly unusual to
find a good memory and excellent judgment united,
although the two qualities might be possessed to-
gether by some in a moderate degree. He added
that there were of course exceptions to the rule, but
Upon Memory and Judgment 469
such exceptions were mostly of rare and extra-
ordinary merit.
He gave as an instance one of his most intimate
friends, the great Anthony Favre, first President
of Savoy, and one of the most celebrated lawyers
of his time, who united in his own person remark-
able keenness of judgment with a marvellous
memory. ‘‘In truth,” he went on to say, “‘ these
two qualities are so different in their nature, that
it is not difficult for one to push the other out.
One is the outcome of vivacity and alertness, the
other is not unfrequently characteristic of the slow
and leaden-footed.”’
After some more conversation with me on this
subject, in which I deplored my want of judgment,
he concluded with these words: ‘* It is a common
thing for people to complain of their defective
memory, and even of the malice and worthlessness
of their will, but nobody ever deplores his poverty
of spirit, i.e., of judgment. In spite of the Beati-
tude, everyone rejects such a thought as a doing an
injustice to themselves. Well, courage! advanc-
ing years will bring you pien of judgment: it is
one of the fruits of experience and old age.
But as for memory, its failure is one of the un-
doubted defects of old people. That is why I have
little hope of the improvement of my own; but pro-
vided I have enough to remember God that is all I
want.* I remembered, O Lord, Thy judgments of
old: and I was comforted.”
A PRIEST SHOULD NOT AIM AT IMITATING
IN HIS SERMONS ANY PARTICULAR PREACHER.
I esteemed him so highly, and not without reason,
*Psalm cxviii. 52.
470 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
that all his ways delighted me. Among others, I
thought that I should like to imitate his style of
preaching. Can it be said that I chose a bad
model or was wanting in taste?
Do not, however, imagine for a moment that I
have ever aimed at reproducing his lofty and deep
thoughts and teaching, the eloquent sweetness of
his language, the marvellous power which swayed
the hearts of his audience. No, I have always felt
that to be beyond my powers, and I have only tried
to mould my action, gestures, and intonation after
the pattern set by him. Now, as it happened, that
owing to his constitution and temperament his
speech was always slow and deliberate, not to say
prosy, and my own quite the opposite, I became so
strangely changed that my dear people at Belley
(where the above incident occurred) almost failed to
recognise me. They thought a changeling had
been foisted upon them in the place of their own
Bishop, whose vehement action and passionate
words they dearly loved, even though sometimes
they had found his discourses hard to follow. In
fact, I had ceased to be myself; I was now nothing
more than a wretched copy with nothing in it really
recalling the original.
Our Blessed Father heard of this, and being
eager to apply a remedy chose his opportunity, and
one day, when we were talking about sermons,
quietly remarked that he was told I had taken it
into my head to imitate the Bishop of Geneva in
my preaching. I replied that it was so, and asked if
I had chosen a bad model, and if he did not preach
better than I did.
‘ Ah,” he replied, ‘‘ this is a chance for attacking
A Priest should not aim at Imitating, £c. 471
his reputation! But, no, he does not preach so
badly, only the worst of it is that they tell me you
imitate him so badly that his style is not recognis-
able: that you have spoiled the Bishop of Belley
yet have not at all succeeded in reproducing the
Bishop of Geneva. You had better, like the artist
who was forced to put the name of his subject under
every portrait he painted, give out that you are
only copying me.” ‘* Well, be it so, I replied, in
good time you will see that little by little from being
a pupil I have become a master, and in the end my
copies will be taken for originals.”
** Jesting apart,” he continued, ‘‘ you are spoiling
yourself, ruining your preaching, and pulling down
a splendid building to re-fashion it into one which
sins against the rules of nature and art. You must
remember, too, that if at your age, like a piece of
cloth, you have taken a wrong fold, it will not be
easy to smooth it out.”
“ Ah ! if manners could be changed, what would
I not give for such as yours? Ido what I can to
stir myself up, I do not spare the spur, but the more
I urge myself on, the less I advance. I have diffi-
culty in getting my words out, and still more in
pronouncing them. I am heavier than a block, I
can neither excite my own emotions, nor those of
others. You have more fire in the tip of your
fingers than I have in my whole body. Where
you fly like a bird, I crawl like a tortoise. And now
they tell me that you, who are naturally so rapid,
so lively, so powerful in your preaching, are
weighing your words, counting your periods,
drooping your wings, dragging yourself on, and
making your audience as tired as yourself. Is this
472 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the beautiful Noemi of bygone days? the city of
perfect loveliness, the joy of the whole earth? ”’
Why should I dwell more on his reproof?
Sufficient to say that he cured me of my error, and
I returned to my former style of preaching. God
grant that it may be for His glory!
Upon SHORT SERMONS.
He highly approved of brevity in preaching, and
used to say that the chief fault of the preachers of
the day was lengthiness.
I ventured to ask how that could be a fault, and
how he could speak of abundance as if it were
famine?
He answered: ‘* When the vine is thick in leaves
it always bears less fruit, multiplicity of words does
not produce great results. You will find that a
powerful and spirited horse will always start off
promptly, and as promptly pull up. A poor post
hack, on the contrary, will go on several paces after
his rider has reined him in. Why is that?
Because he is weak. So it is with the mind and
intellect. He who is strong leaves off speaking
when he pleases, because he has great control over
himself, and readiness of judgment. A weak-
minded man speaks much, but loses himself in his
own thoughts, nor thinks of finishing what he has
to say. Look at all the homilies and sermons of
the ancient Fathers and observe how short they
were, yet how much more efficacious than our
lengthy ones! Wise St. Francis of Assisi, in his
Rule, prescribes that the preachers of his Order
shall preach the Gospel with brevity, and gives an
excellent reason: ‘ Remembering,’ he says, ‘that:
Upon Short Sermons 473
a short word shall the Lord make upon the earth.’*
The more you say, the less your hearers will
retain. The less you say, the more they will profit.
Believe me in this, for I speak from experience.
By overloading the memory of a hearer we destroy
it, just as lamps are put out when they are filled
too full of oil, and plants are spoilt by being too
abundantly watered. When a discourse is too
long, by the time the end is reached, the middle
is forgotten, and by the time the middle is reached
the beginning has been lost.’ Moderately good
preachers are accepted, provided they are brief, and
the best become tiresome when they are too lengthy.
There is no more disagreeable quality in a preacher
than prolixity.’’
Our Blessed Father sometimes surprised me by
saying that we ought to be pleased if, when going
up into the pulpit to preach, we saw before us a
small and scattered audience. ‘‘ Thirty years of
experience,’’ he said, ‘‘ have made me speak thus:
I have always seen greater results from the sermons
which I have preached to small congregations than
from those which I have delivered in crowded
churches. An occurrence which I am going to
relate will justify what I say.
‘“ When I was Provost, or rather Dean, of my
church, my predecessor in this diocese, sent me,
in company with some other Priests, to instruct in
the Faith the inhabitants of the three bailiwicks of
the Chablais, namely, Thonon, Ternier, and
Gaillard. The towns being full at that time of
Huguenots, we had no access to them, and could
only say Mass and give instruction in some scattered
and rather distant chapels.
*Rom. ix. 28,
474 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
‘One Sunday, when the weather was very bad,
there were only seven persons at my Mass, and
these few suggested to some one to tell me that I
ought not to take the trouble of preaching after
Mass, as it was the custom then to do, the number
of hearers being so small. I replied that neither
did a large audience encourage me, nor a scanty
one discourage me; provided only that I could
edify one single person, that would be enough for
me.
“ I went up, therefore, into the pulpit, and I
remember that the subject of my sermon was
praying to the Saints. I treated it very simply and
catechetically, not at all controversially, as you
know that is neither my style nor is the doing so
to my taste. I said nothing pathetic, and put
nothing very forcibly, yet one of my small audience
began to weep bitterly, sobbing and giving vent to
audible sighs. I thought that he was ill, and
begged him not to put any constraint upon himself,
as I was quite ready to break off my sermon, and
to give him any help he needed. He replied that
he was perfectly well in body, and he begged me to
go on speaking boldly, for so I should be admin-
istering the needful healing to the wound.
The sermon, which was very short, being ended,
he hurried up to me, and throwing himself at my
feet cried out: ‘ Reverend sir, you have given me
life, you have saved my soul to-day. Oh, blessed
the hour in which I came here and listened to your
words! This hour will be worth a whole eternity
to me.’
And then, being asked to do so, he related openly
before the little congregation, that, having con-
Upon Short Sermons 475
ferred with some ministerson this very same subject
of praying to the Saints, which they made out to
be sheer idolatry, he had decided on the following
Thursday to return to their ranks (he was a recent
convert to Catholicism), and to abjure the Catholic
religion. But, he added, that the sermon which
he had just heard had instructed him so well, and
had so fully dispersed all his doubts, that he took
back with his whole heart the promise he had given
them, and vowed new obedience to the Roman
Church.
I cannot tell you what an impression this great
example, taking place in so small a congregation,
made throughout the country, or how docile and
responsive to the words of life and of truth it made
all hearts. I could allege other similar instances,
some even more remarkable.”’
For myself I now prefer small congregations,
and am never so well pleased as when I see only a
little group of people listening to my preaching.
Seneca ence said to his friend Lucillus that they
themselves formed a theatre wide enough for the
communication of their philosophy, and, speaking
of those who came to hear his teaching, he says:
Satis sunt pauci, satis est alter, satis est unus.
A few are enough—two are enough—nay, one is
enough. Why should not a Christian Philosopher
be content with what was enough for this Stoic?
Upon PREACHING AND PREACHERS.
On the subject of preaching, Blessed Francis had
very definite and weighty thoughts. He considered
that it was not sufficient for a preacher to teach the
ways of God to the unrighteous, and by converting
476 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
the wicked, to build up by his words the walls of
Jerusalem, that is, of holy Church, while making
known to God’s people the ways of divine pro-
vidence. He wanted more than this, and said
that every sermon ought to have some special plan,
with always for its end the giving glory to God
and the converting and instructing of those who
were to hear it. Sometimes this would be the setting
forth of a mystery, sometimes the clearing up of
some point of faith, sometimes the denouncing of
a particular vice, sometimes the endeavouring to
plant some virtue in the hearts of the hearers.
‘“ No one,” he said, ‘‘can sufficiently lay to
heart the tmportance of having a definite aim in
preaching; for want of it many carefully studied
sermons are without fruit. Some preachers are
content to explain their text with all the pains-
taking and mental effort that they can bring to bear
upon the subject. Others give themselves up to
elaborate and exhaustive research and excite the
admiration of their hearers, either by their scientific
reasonings, their eloquence, the studied grace of
their gestures, or by their perfect diction. Others
add to all this beautiful and useful teaching, but
so that it only slips in here and there, as it were, by
chance, and is not expressly dwelt upon. But when
we have only one aim, and when all our reasonings
and all our movements tend towards it and gather
round it, as the radii of a circle round the unity of
its centre, then the impression made is infinitely
more powerful. Such speaking has the force of a
mighty river which leaves its mark upon the hardest
of the stones it flows over.
Upon Preaching and Preachers 477
“ Drones visit every flower, yet gather no honey
from any. The working bee does otherwise: it
settles down upon each flower just as long as is
necessary for it to suck in enough sweetness to
make its one honeycomb. So those who follow my
method will preach profitable sermons, and will
deserve to be accounted faithful dispensers of the
divine mysteries; prudent administrators of the
word of life and of eternal life.’’
When our Blessed Father heard a certain preacher
praised up to tne skies, he asked in what virtues he
excelled; whether in humility, mortification, gentle-
ness, courage, devotion or what? When told that
he was said to preach very well, he replied: ‘‘ That
is speaking, not acting: the former is far easier
than the latter. There are many who speak and
yet act not, and who destroy by their bad example
what they build up with their tongue. A man
whose tongue is longer than his arm, is he not a
monstrosity ?”’
On one occasion, of some one who had delighted
all his hearers by a sermon he had preached, it
was said : ‘‘ To-day he literally did wonders.” The
Saint replied: “‘ If he did that he must be one of
those absolutely blameless men of whom Scripture
says ‘they have not sought after gold, nor hoped
for treasures of gold and silver.’ ° Another time
he was told that this same preacher had on a par-
ticular day surpassed himself. ‘‘ Ah!’’ he said,
“what new act of self-renunciation has he made?
What injury has he borne? For it is only after
overcoming ourselves in this way that we surpass
ourselves.”
“Do you wish to know,” he continued, ‘‘ how
478 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
I test the excellence and value of a preacher? It
is by assuring myself that those who have been
listening to him come away striking their breasts
and saying: ‘I will do better’; not by their
saying: ‘Oh how well he spoke, what beautiful
things he said!’ For to say beautiful things in
fluent and well-chosen words shows indeed the
learning and eloquence of a man; but the con-
version of sinners and their departing from their
evil ways is the sure sign that God has spoken
by the mouth of the preacher, that he possesses
the true power of speech, which is inspired by the
science of the Saints, and that he proclaims worthily
in the name of Almighty God that perfect law
which is the salvation of souls.
‘“ The true fruit of preaching is the destruction
of sin and the establishment of the kingdom of
justice upon earth.* By this justice, of which the
prophet speaks, is meant justification and sanctifi-
cation. For this, God sends his preachers, as Jesus
Christ sent His Apostles, that they may bring forth
fruit, and that this fruit may remain,f and by con-
sequence that they may labour for a meat which
perishes not, but which endures unto life ever-
lasting.’’t
When I was in residence in my diocese I never
failed to preach on every possible day in Advent
and Lent, besides doing so on all Sundays and
holidays. Some good people who set themselves
up as judges in such matters, full of worldly pru-
dence, said that I was making myself too common,
and bringing the holy function of preaching into
contempt.
*Dan. ix 24. tJohn xv. 16. tId. vi. 27.
Upon Preaching and Preachers 479
This came to the ears of our Blessed Father,
and he, despising such poor earthly wisdom,
observed, that to blame a husbandman or vine-
dresser for cultivating his land too well was really
to praise him. Speaking to me on the subject, and
fearing that all that had been said might dis-
courage me, he related to me what follows: “I
had,’’ he said, the best father in the world, but as
he had spent a great part of his life at court and in
the camp, he knew the maxims that hold in those
conditions of life far better than he did the principles
of holy living.
“ While I was Provost,’’ he continued, ‘‘ I
preached on all possible occasions, whether in the
Chablais, where I was busy for many years up-
rooting heresy, or, on my return, in the Cathedral,
in parish churches, and even in the chapels of the
most obscure Confraternities. While at Annecy I
never refused any invitation whencesoever it came
to preach. One day my good father took me
aside and said to me: ‘ Provost, you preach too
often. Even on week days I am always hearing
the bell ringing for sermons, and when I ask who
is preaching I invariably get the same answer:
‘“ The Provost, the Provost.’ In my time, it was
not sO; sermons were rare, but then they were
sermons! They were learned and well studied,
more Greek and Latin was quoted in one of them
than in ten of yours; people were delighted and
edified, they crowded to hear them, just as they
would have crowded to gather up manna. Now,
you make preaching so common that no one thinks
much of it, and you yourself are held in far less
esteem.’
480 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
“" You see my good father spoke according to
his lights and quite sincerely. You may be sure
he was not wishing me ill, but he was guided by
the maxims of the world in which he had been
brought up.
Yet what folly in the sight of God are all the
principles of human wisdom! If we pleased men
we should not be the servants of Jesus Christ. He
Himself, the model of all preachers, did not use
all this circumspection, neither did the Apostles
who followed in His footsteps. Preach the word:
be instant in season out of season.*
‘“ Believe me, we can never preach enough,
especially in this border-land of heresy, heresy
which is only kept alive by sermons, and which will
never be destroyed except by that very breath of
God which is holy preaching.
If you will take my advice, therefore, you will
shut your eyes against the counsels of your worldly-
wise monitors and listen rather to St. Paul, who
says to you: But be thou vigilant, labour in all
things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy
ministry .F
Moreover, when the Apostle continues, Be sober,
he refers to temperance in eating and drinking, not
to sobriety or restraint in the discharge of pastoral
duties. Blessed is the pastor who shall be found
watching and feeding his flock! I tell you that the
divine Master will set him over all his goods. And
when the Prince of Pastors shall come he will
receive from His hand a crown of glory which can
never fade.”
w Tom. GW. 2,99. $ Time Wes:
Blessed Francis and the Bishop, £c. 481
BLESSED FRANCIS AND THE BISHOP OF BELLEY’S
SERMON.
One day I was to preach at the Visitation Con-
vent at Annecy, the first established convent of the
Order, and I knew that our Blessed Father, as well
as a great congregation, would be present. I had,
to tell the truth, taken extra pains in the considera-
tion of my subject, and intended to do my very best.
I had chosen for text a passage in the Canticle of
Canticles, and this I turned and twisted into every
possible form, applying it to the Visitation voca-
tion which I extolled far too extravagantly to please
the good Bishop.
When he and I were alone together afterwards,
he told me that, though my hearers had been
delighted with me, and could not say enough in
praise of my sermon, there was one solitary excep-
tion, one individual who was not pleased with it.
On my expressing surprise and much curiosity to
know whom I could have hurt or distressed by my
words, he answered quietly that I saw the person
now before me. I looked around—there was no one
present but himself. ‘‘ Alas!” I cried, ‘‘ this is
indeed a wet blanket thrown upon my success. I
had rather have had your approbation than that of
a whole province! However, God be praised!
I have fallen into the hands of a surgeon who
wounds only to heal.
“ What more have you to say, for I know you
do not .atend to spare me? ”
‘““ I love you too much,” he replied, ‘‘ either to
spare or to flatter you, and had you loved our
Sisters in the same way, you would not have wasted
HH
482 The Sprit of St. Francis De Sales
words in puffing them up in place of edifying them,
and in praising their vocation, of which they have
already quite a sufficiently high opinion.
‘“ You would have dealt out to them more salu-
tary doctrine, in proportion as it would have been
more humiliating. Always remember that the
whole object of preaching is to root out sin, and
to plant justice in its stead.”
On my replying to this that those whom I
addressed were already delivered from the hands
of their enemies, the world, the flesn, and the devil,
and were serving God securely in holiness and
justice, ‘‘ Then,’’ he said, ‘‘ since they are stand-
ing, you should teach them to take heed lest they
fall, and to work out their salvation with fear and
trembling.
‘It is right, indeed, for you to encourage them
to persevere in their holy undertaking, but you
must do so without exposing them to the danger
of presumption and vanity. Enough said; I know
that for the future you will be careful in this
matter.’’
The next day he sent me to preach in a convent
of Poor Clares, an Order renowned for the exem-
plary life of its members and for their extraordinary
austerities. I took good care to avoid the rock on
which I had struck the day before, and against
which he had warned me. There was as large a
congregation as before, but I confined myself to
plain and simple language, without a thought of
studied rhetoric.
I did not praise the austerities of the good nuns,
nor did I labour to please any of my hearers, their
edification was my sole object.
Blessed Francis and the Bishop, £c. 483
On our return to the house, our Blessed Father
said, embracing me tenderly, that though most of
those present were dissatisfied, and compared my
sermon most unfavourably with that of the preced-
ing day, yet, that he, on the contrary, who had
then found fault with me, was now perfectly con-
tented and pleased, and that he believed that God
was pleased also. ‘‘ As for your past faults,” he
continued, ‘‘I give you a plenary indulgence for
them all.
“If you continue to preach as you have just
done, whatever the world may say, you will be
doing much service for the Master of the Vineyard,
and will become a fitting servant of His Testa-
ment”
One day I was preaching before him at Annecy
in the church which he used as his cathedral. He
was surrounded by all his canons, who, with the
whole Chapter, attended him to the bench where
he was in the habit of sitting to hear sermons.
This particular one of mine pleased him as
regarded its matter and delivery, but I suffered an
allusion to escape me referring to his own name of
Sales, and implying, or rather affirming, that he
was the salt (Sal es) with which the whole mass of
the people was seasoned.
This praise was so distasteful to him that, on our
return from the church, he took me to task for it,
in a tone and with a manner as severe as was pos-
sible to his gentle nature. ‘“‘ You were going on
so well,” he said. ‘* What could have induced you
to play these pranks? Do you know that you
spoilt your sermon by them? Truly, I am a fine
sort of salt, fit only to be thrown into the street and
484 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
trampled under foot by the people. For certainly
you must have said what you did say in order to
put me to shame—you have found out the right
way to do that—but, at least, spare your own
friends.”
I tried to excuse myself, alleging that what the
Bishop of Saluces once said to him had suddenly
come into my head, and that, quite without pre-
meditation, the very same words escaped my lips.
““ But,” he replied, “‘ in the pulpit such things must
not escape our lips. I am quite aware that this
time they really did escape you, but you must not
allow it to happen again.”
I may here explain, for your benefit, what I
meant by this reference to a saying of the Bishop
of Saluces. That holy prelate, who died in the
odour of sanctity, and who was a disciple of St.
Philip Neri, was an intimate friend of our Blessed
Father’s.
On one occasion, when the latter was passing
through Saluces on his way to the shrine of Our
Lady of Montdeay, the good Bishop received him
with every mark of respect, and begged him to
preach in his cathedral. After the sermon, he said
to him, ‘‘ My Lord, truly tu Sal es, at ego, neque
sal, neque lux.” That is to say, “< Youwarea
true salt (Sal es), and I am neither salt nor light,”
alluding to the word Saluces (Sal lux), his diocese.’
Upon CONTROVERSY.
The gentleness of his disposition made Blessed
INoTE.—Another version says that it was St. Francis who
answered: ‘‘On the contrary, tu sal et lux.’’ See “ Vies
de S. F. de Sales,” by his nephew, Charles Auguste de
Sales and Hamon. Also the life of Blessed Juvenal
Ancina, the said Bishop of Saluces. [Ed.]
Upon Controversy 485
Francis averse to disputing, either in private or
public, in matters of religion. Rather, he loved to
hold informal and kindly conferences with any who
had wandered from the right way; and by this
means he brought back countless souls into the
Catholic Church. His usual method of proceeding
was this. He first of all listened readily to all that
his opponents had to say about their religion, not
showing any sign of weariness or contempt, how-
ever tired he might be of the subject. By this
means he sought to incline them to give him in
his turn some little attention. When, if only out
of mere civility, he was given in his turn an oppor-
tunity of speaking, he did not lose a moment of the
precious time, but at once took up the subject
treated by the heretic, or perhaps another which
he considered more useful, and deduced from it
briefly, clearly, and very simply the truth of the
Catholic belief, and this without any air of contend-
ing, without a word which breathed of controversy,
but neither more nor less than as if dealing in a
catechetical instruction with an Article of the Faith.
If interrupted by outcries and contemptuous
expressions, he bore the annoyance with incredible
patience, and, without showing himself disturbed
in the least, continued his discourse as soon as
ever an Opportunity was given to him.
‘“ You would never believe,” he said, ‘‘ how
beautiful the truths of our holy Faith appear to
those who consider them calmly. We smother
them when we try to dress them up, and we hide
them when we aim at rendering them too con-
spicuous. Faith is an infused, not a natural, know-
ledge; it is not a human science, but a divine light,
486 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
by means of which we see things which, in the
natural order, are invisible to us. If we try to
teach it as human sciences are taught, by ocular
demonstrations and by natural evidence, we deceive
ourselves; Faith is not to be found where human
reason tries only to support itself by the experience
of the senses.
All the external proofs which can be brought to
bear upon our opponents are weak, unless the Holy
Spirit is at work in their souls, teaching them to
recognise the ways of God. All that has to be done
is to propose to them simply the truths of our Faith.
To propose these truths is to compel men to accept
them, unless, indeed, they resist the Holy Spirit,
either through dullness of understanding, or
through uncircumcision of the heart. The attach-
ing over much importance to the light of natural
reason is a quenching of the Spirit of God. Faith
is not an acquired, but an infused virtue; it must
be treated with accordingly, and in instructing
heretics we must beware of taking to ourselves any
part of the glory which belongs to God alone.
One of the greatest misfortunes of heretics is that
their ministers in their discourses travesty our
Faith, representing it as something quite different
from what it really is. For example, they pretend
that we have no regard for Holy Scripture; that
we worship the Pope as God; that we regard the
Saints as divinities ; that we hold the Blessed Virgin
as being more than Jesus Christ; that we pay
divine worship to images and pictures; that we
believe souls in Purgatory to be suffering the self-
Same agony and despair as those in Hell; that we
deprive the laity of participation in the Blood of
Upon Controversy 487
Jesus Christ; that we adore bread in the Eucharist ;
that we despise the merits of Jesus Christ, attribut-
ing our salvation solely to the merit of our good
works; that auricular confession is mental torture;
and so on, endeavouring by calumnies of this sort
to discredit our religion and to render the -very
thought of it odious to those who are so thoroughly
misinformed as to its nature. When, on the con-
trary, they are made acquainted with our real belief
on any of these points, the scales fall from their
eyes, and they see that the fascination and cajolery
of their preachers has hidden from them the truth
as to God’s goodness and the beauty of God’s truth,
and has put darkness before them in the place of
light.
It is true that at first they may shrug their
shoulders, and laugh us to scorn; but when they
have left us, and, being alone, reflect a little
on what we have told them, you will see them
flutter back like decoyed birds, saying to us, ‘ We
Should like to hear you speak again about those
things which you brought before us the other day.’
Then they fall, some on the right hand, others on
the left, and Truth, victorious on all sides, brings
them by different paths to know it as it really is.”
He gave me many instances of conversions he
had himself made in this manner during his five
years’ mission in the Chablais.
He gave them to show how useful this mode of
proceeding was, and how far more helpful to souls
than mere controversy can be.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Blessed Francis did not approve of controversial
488 The Spirit of St. Francs De Sales
sermons.' ‘* The Christian pulpit,” he used to say,
“is a place for improving of morals, not for
wrangling about them, for instructing the faithful
in the truth of their belief, rather than for convinc-
ing of their error those who have separated them-
selves from the Church. An experience of thirty
years in the work of evangelising makes me speak
thus. We made some trial of the controversial
method, when God through us led back the Chab-
lais to the Catholic Faith, but when I attempted to
throw my treating of controversial subjects in the
pulpit into the form of a discussion, it was never
successful. In place of reclaiming our separated
brethren, this method scares them away; when they
see that we are of set purpose attacking them, they
instantly put themselves on their guard; when we
bring the lamp too close to their eyes, they start
back from the light. Nor have I ever observed
that any of my fellow labourers in this work of the
Lord were more successful in following out this
plan, of fencing, as I may more justly call it, even
though they engaged in it with the utmost enthu-
siasm, and in a place where the congregation all
sang hymns together, and each one in his turn
acted the preacher, each saying exactly what he
liked, and no one taking any kind of official lead
among them.
But, in truth, this fencing was what St. Paul
calls beating the air.* I do not mean that we must
not prove Catholic truths, and refute the contrary
errors; for the weapons of the spiritual armoury
1Note.—It is more correct to say that St. Francis pre-
ferred moral sermons to controversy.
*; Cor. ix. 26.
The same subject continued 489
and of the Word of God are powerful to destroy
all false teaching which rears itself up against the
truth, and to condemn disobedience to God; but
we must not slash with our words as desperate
fencers do, but rather manage them dexterously, as
does a surgeon when using his lancet—he probes
skilfully, so as to wound the patient as little as
possible.”
And, indeed, Blessed Francis’? way of dealing
with this branch of theology, bristling with thorns
as it does at every point, was so sweet and pleasant
as to make it, as it were, blossom into roses. I
could relate many instances of the success of his
preaching, without employing controversy, in
bringing back wanderers from the fold, equally
with other sinners, into the Church.
He accomplished this by simply stating great
truths, and bringing them home to his hearers.
One of the most remarkable instances, perhaps, is
that of the Protestant lady, who hearing him preach
on the Last Judgment at Paris in the year 16109,
having been attracted more by curiosity than by
any good motive to listen to the sermon, there
received that first flash of light which afterwards
guided her into the bosom of the true Church, into
which later she was followed by all the members
of her noble family, one that has since given us
many celebrated divines and preachers. This
incident, however, with many more of the same
kind, is fully related in the life of our Blessed
Father. So successful was he with Protestants that
Cardinal du Perron used to say that if it were only
a question of confounding the heretics, he thought
he had found out the secret, but to convert them
he felt obliged to send for the Bishop of Geneva.
490 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Upon REASON AND REASONING.
He used to say that reason never deceives, but
reasoning often does. When a person went to him
with some complaint, or about some troublesome
business, he would always listen most patiently and
attentively to any reasons which were put before
him, and, being full of prudence and good judg-
ment, he could always discern between what had
any bearing on the matter and what was foreign to
it. When, therefore, people began obstinately to
defend their opinions by reasons, which, plausible
though they might appear, really carried no weight
sufficient to secure a judgment, he would sometimes
say very gently, “‘ Yes, I know quite well that these
are your reasons, but do you know that all reasons
are not reasonable?’’ Someone on one ocasion
having retorted that he might as well assert that
heat was not warm, he replied seriously, ‘‘ Reason
and reasoning are two different things: reasoning
is only the path leading to reason.’’ Thus he
would endeavour to bring the person who had
strayed away from truth back to it. Truth and
reason can never be separated, because they are
one and the same thing.
Upon QuotinG Hoty Scripture.
St. Charles Borromeo never read the Scriptures
except on his knees, just as if he were listening to
God speaking on Mount Sinai in thunder and light-
ning.
Blessed Francis also would not allow the Bible
to be treated with anything but the most extreme
Upon Political Diplomacy 491
reverence, whether in public speaking, in writing,
or in private reading.
He was especially averse to that habit which some
preachers have of plunging into the mystical mean-
ing of a passage, whether allegorical or figurative,
before they have explained its literal sense. ‘“‘ To
do this,” he said, ‘‘ is to build the roof of a house
before laying the foundation. Holy Scripture must
be treated with more reverence and more consis-
tency—it is not material to be cut according to
our fancy, and made into ornamental garments such
as fashion suggests.’’
Upon POLITICAL DIPLOMACY.
On one occasion I expressed my surprise to our
Blessed Father that his Serene Highness Charles
Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, who was one of the most
excellent Princes and foremost politicians of his
age, should never have employed him in his affairs,
especially in those which regarded France, where
they did not prosper.
As may be supposed, I explained the reason of
my surprise, insisting that his gentleness, patience,
skill, and probity were certain to bring about the
desired result.
He listened in silence, and then answered with
a seriousness and earnestness which put me to
shame, ** You say too much, you exaggerate: you
imagine that others esteem me as you do, you who
are always looking at me through a magnifying
glass. However, let us put that aside. As regards
our Prince, my feeling is very different from yours,
for in this very matter I consider that he shows the
excellence of his judgment.
492 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
‘I will tell you why I speak and think this. In
the first place, I have not all that skill and prudence
in the management of affairs with which you credit
me. Is it likely I should have? The mere words,
human prudence, business, politics, terrify me.
That is not all. To speak frankly, I know nothing
of the art of lying, dissimulating, or pretence,
which latter is the chief instrument and the main-
spring of political manceuvring; the art of arts in
all matters of human prudence and of civil adminis-
tration.
‘““ Not for all the provinces of Savoy, of France,
nay, not for the whole empire, would I connive
at deceit. I deal with others frankly, in good faith,
and very simply; the words of my lips are the out-
come of the thoughts of my heart. I cannot carry
two faces under one hood; I hate duplicity with a
mortal hatred, knowing that God holds the deceitful
man in abomination. There are very few who,
knowing me, do not at least discern this much of
my character. They therefore judge very wisely
that I am by no means fit for an office in which
you have to speak peace to your neighbour whilst
you are plotting mischief against him in your
heart. Moreover, I have always followed, as a
heavenly, supreme, and divine maxim, those great
words of the Apostle: No man being a soldier to
God entangleth himself with secular business that
he may please Him to whom he hath engaged him-
selj.” *
UPON AMBITION.
St. Francis was truly like Aaron called to the
*2 Tim. iq
Upon Ambition 493
pastoral charge by God alone, without his having
used artifices or other means to procure himself
such honour. This plainly appears from his life
written by so many worthy persons.
His Bishopric was, indeed, no sinecure, being
a most onerous burden. He says of it himself in
one of his letters:
‘“ The affairs of this diocese are not streams, they
are torrents which cannot be forded.’’ Alluding to
the words of the prophet: And it was a torrent
which I could not pass over.*
Towards the close of his life, when Meds eae
Christina of France, the King’s sister,! married His
Serene Highness the Prince of Piedmont, heir to
the Duke of Savoy, she wished to have Blessed
Francis in some Official position close to her person,
and, to effect this, proposed to make him her Grand
Almoner. Certain prelates who had been them-
selves hoping to obtain this office, seeing their
design thus frustrated, murmured bitterly, bursting
forth into angry invectives against the Saint, as
if by cabals, and intrigue, according to the custom
of the world, he had succeeded in gaining the post
for himself. St. Francis, however, was merely
amused by what he called the buzzing of flies, and
wrote to one in whom he could confide:
“ Her Highness and the Prince of Piedmont wish
me to become the Princess’s Grand Almoner, but
you will believe me readily enough, I am sure,
when I tell you that I neither, directly nor indirectly,
have shown any wish to obtain this office. No,
truly, my dearest Mother, I have no ambition save
that of being able to employ the remainder of my
days usefully in the service and to the honour of
“Ezech. xlvii. 5. 1 Louis XIII.
494 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
our Lord. Indeed, I hold courts in sovereign
contempt, because they are centres of the power of
this world, which I abhor each day more and more
— itself, its spirit, its maxims, and all its follies.”
Upon COURTS AND COURTIERS.
Blessed Francis did not hold the opinion of many
that the courts of Princes are places the very atmo-
sphere of which is so tainted as to infect all who
frequent them, and to be invariably prejudicial to
the health and holiness of the soul.
Those who describe a court in terms of this sort
are usually very ignorant on the subject. They
speak of what they have never seen nor heard about
from competent witnesses. A soul which has
received the grace of God, and preserves it, can
work out its salvation anywhere, nor is there any
harmful intercourse so disease-laden that it cannot
be overcome by this heavenly antidote. ‘‘ David,
and after him St. Louis,’’ says our Holy Bishop,
‘in the press of the perils, toils, and travails which
they endured, as well in peace as in war, did not
cease to sing in truth: ‘ What have I in Heaven,
and, besides Thee, what do I desire upon earth?’ ’’*
‘St. Bernard lost none of the ground which he
desired to gain in this holy love by passing much
time in the courts and armies of great Princes
where he laboured to guide matters of state to the
advancement of God’s glory. He changed his
habitation, but he changed not his heart, nor did
his heart change its love, nor his love its object;
in fine, to speak his own language, changes were
made round about him, but not in him.
*Psalm lxxii. 25.
Upon Courts and Courtiers 495
His employments were different, yet he was
indifferent to all employment, and different from
them all, his soul not taking its colour from his
affairs and conversations, as the chameleon does
from the places where it is, but remaining ever
wholy united to God, ever white in purity, ever red
with charity, and ever full of humility.
I am not ignorant, Theotimus, of that wise man’s
counsel.
He ever flies the Court and legal strife
Who seeks to sow the seeds of holy life:
Rarely do camps effect the soul’s increase,
Virtue and faith are daughters unto peace.
And the Israelites had good reason to excuse
themselves to the Babylonians, who urged them to
sing the sacred Canticles of Sion: How shall we
sing the song of the Lord ina strange land?* But
do not forget that those poor people were not only
among the Babylonians, but were also their cap-
tives, and whoever is intent only on winning the
favours of princes, dignities, military honours,
alas! he is lost, he cannot sing the hymn of
heavenly love. But he who is at Court, in the
army, at the bar, only because it is his duty, God
helps him, and heavenly sweetness is an Epithem
on his heart, to preserve him from the plague which
rages round about him.
There are some kinds of fish, such as salmon,
and the like, which, instead of losing their flavour,
become better and more agreeable to the taste when
they forsake the salt water of the sea for the sweet
water of rivers.
*Psalm CXXXVi. 4.
496 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Roses smell sweeter when planted near garlic,
and in like manner there are souls which grow more
fervent in places where libertinism and irreligion
seem to drag all virtue at their chariot wheels.’’*
Our Blessed Father’s piety was of this sort, for,
knowing that he who is consecrated to God should
not entangle himself in the intrigues of the world,+
he speaks thus to one in whom he confided: “I
must confess that, as regards business, especially
that of a worldly nature, I feel myself more than
ever to be nothing but a poor priest, having, thank
God, learnt at court to be more simple and less
worldly.”
Truly, we may say here with the wise man:
Who is he and we will praise him? for he hath
done wonderful things in his life.t
UPON THE CARNIVAL.
His sad time each year was the Carnival, those
days of disorder and licence which, like a torrent,
carry away into excesses of one sort or another even
the staunchest and most fervent in their piety.
He felt, indeed, like Job of old, who offered sacri-
fices and prayers, and afflicted both body and soul
with fasts and mortifications, while his children
were passing their time in revellings and banquet-
ings.
As our Blessed Father was all things to all men,
and weak with the weak, so he also burned with
the scandalised; and who would not be scandalised
to see the Pagan festival of the Bacchanalia cele-
brated among Christians? For this very reason,
as we know, the name of God is blasphemed by
many, and the Catholic religion unjustly blamed,
* Love of God. Book xii.c.4. f2Tim.ii. 4. { Eccles. xxxi. 9,
An instance of his compassion, dc. 497
as if it permitted what it cannot prevent, as if it
commanded what it tolerates with reluctance, as if it
ordered what it detests and declaims against by the
mouth of its preachers. Perhaps you would like
to hear the words in which our Blessed Father
pours forth his lamentations over this period of the
year, so full of disorder and confusion.
“I must tell you,” he says, ‘that now I have
come to my sorrowful time. From the Epiphany
even to Lent my heart is full of strange sensations.
Miserable and detestable as I am, I am weighed
down with grief to see the loss of so much devotion,
I mean the falling off of so many souls. These two
last Sundays I have found our communions
diminished by one-half. That has grieved me very
much, for even if those who made them do not give
way to sin, why, and for what, do they now omit
them? For nothing at all—out of mere vanity, it
is that which grieves me.”
AN INSTANCE OF HIS COMPASSION FOR ANIMALS.
The Church inculcates on the Clergy perfect
gentleness and kindness. This is why they may
never take any part in anything involving blood-
shed. His having shed the blood of a fellow man,
even when required by the interests of justice, is
considered a canonical irregularity, and deprives
a Priest of the right to celebrate Holy Mass.
Blessed Francis was remarkable for his gentle-
ness and tender-heartedness towards all creatures.
I will give you a little instance of this.
One day he was at my house, when a nobleman
of distinction called upon us. This gentleman was
at the head of a hunting party, and seeing in my
II
498 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
orchard a roebuck which had been given to me and
which was peacefully feeding, he proposed, as he
said, to amuse our Blessed Father by setting his
dogs upon the poor animal, and to confine the hunt
to my orchard.
The good Bishop’s remonstrances were in vain.
But though he refused to go to the orchard, he
could not avoid being a witness, however unwill-
ingly, of what took place, as his room overlooked
the ground. Great numbers of people came to
enjoy the spectacle; the horns were blown, the dogs
barked, while the poor roebuck, as if it knew who
would fain have been its deliverer, bounding
towards the window near which the Bishop was
seated, seemed, like a suppliant, to be imploring
his help.
Blessed Francis drew back, and begged as
earnestly that the hunt might be given up as if he
had been asking pardon for a criminal.
He did not see the end, for the animal was at
once brought to bay and despatched. They wanted
him to see it when dead, but he did not deign so
much as to look at it, and when the venison was
served at table, he most unwillingly partook of the
dish. ‘* Alas,” he exclained, ‘‘ what hellish plea-
sure! This is just how infuriated demons pursue
poor souls by temptations to sin, so as to precipitate
them into the abyss of everlasting death, yet of that
no one thinks.”
Upon HUNTING.
Blessed Francis was sometimes taxed with over
much good nature and gentleness, and was told
that this was the cause of many disorders which
Upon Hunting 499
would not have occurred had he been more whole-
somely severe. He, however, answered calmly and
sweetly that he had always in his mind the words
of the great St. Anselm, the glory of our Alps,
among which he was born. That Saint, he
observed, was in the habit of saying that if he had
to be punished either for being too indulgent or
being over-rigorous, he would far rather it should
be for the former. He gave as his reason that
judgment with mercy would be meted out to the
merciful, and that God would always have more
pity on the pitiful than on the rigorous. He went
on to recall that most sound maxim: Sovereign
right is only sovereign injustice, and remarked that
in Holy Scripture those pastors who were over-
severe were invariably blamed.
Our Saint used always to say that sugar never
yet spoilt any sauce, but that too much salt or
vinegar often did.
His speaking of St. Anselm’s gentleness reminds
me of the story told of the same Saint by Blessed
Francis in his Philothea. ‘‘ One day,” he says, ‘‘as
he, St. Anselm, was travelling, a hare, being
closely run by the hounds which pursued it, took
refuge between his horse’s feet, and the dogs re-
mained yelping around unable to molest their prey
in this its strange sanctuary. His followers were
highly entertained at so novel a spectacle, but Saint
Anselm groaned and wept. ‘ Even thus,’ said he,
‘do the enemies of the soul pursue it and drive it
into all manner of sins, until at the last they can
kill and devour it, and whilst the terrified soul seeks
for some refuge and help, its enemies mock and
laugh if it finds none.’ ’’*
“Devout Life. Part II. c. 13. 7
500 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
Our Blessed Father, following the example of
the holy Archbishop, was invariably kind and
gentle, even with the brute creation. He not only
himself never did them harm, but he prevented,
as far as he could, any being done to them by
others, for he believed that those who thus inflict
pain on innocent creatures often, even at the risk
of their own lives, display a cruel and malevolent
kind of courage. He went so far as to regard it
as a venial sin to injure creatures for the sole plea-
sure of harming them where no advantage of any
sort would accrue to ourselves; his reason being
that we in this way deprive them of the joy to be
found in mere existence bestowed upon them by
God.
“ What, then,’’ he was asked, “‘do you say to
the chase, and to the killing of animals for the food
of man?” ‘‘As regards the food of man,” he
replied, “‘the very words you use justify the act,
and it is that end which justifies the chase.’’ From
this we may conclude that the mere pleasure of the
chase was not sufficient, in his opinion, to render
lawful the indulging in it.
Although he blamed the superstition of the
Turks, who think that they acquire merit in the
sight of God by lavishing kindness on senseless
brutes, even the most savage and cruel, such as
wolves and lions, still he used to say that this pity
had a good natural source, and that those who were
so compassionate to animals were likely to be no
otherwise to men, nature teaching us not to despise
our own flesh. In spite of these feelings, he was
very far from falling into those mistakes which
casuists enumerate as the result of excess in gentle
ness and kindness.
Upon the fear of Ghosts 501
The various writers of the life of Blessed Francis
tell us how it was commonly remarked that all
animals by natural instinct seemed to recognise his
tender, compassionate feelings for them, and that
when hunted and pursued, they at once took refuge
with him, witness the pigeons, which at different
times when he was saying the Divine Office, flew
for safety and shelter into his very hands.
UPON THE FEAR OF GHOSTS.
Fear is a natural passion, which, like all the
others, is in itself neither bad nor good, but bad
when it is excessive and disquieting, good when it
is subordinate to reason. There are some who,
because naturally timid and apprehensive, would
never dare to speak in public. Others are so afraid
of thunder and lightning that they faint in a storm.
Others are afraid of noises at night, and have a
horror of darkness and solitude. Others, again,
have so great a fear of ghosts and apparitions that
they dare not sleep alone in a room.
I have been told, on good authority, that one of
our bravest and most distinguished Generals, who
went to battle as gaily and confidently as he would
go toa marriage, declared that he could never
suffer his valet, after settling him for the night, to
ieave his sleeping apartment, it being quite im-
possible for him to sleep when left alone at night.
Our Blessed Father writes in the following con-
soling manner to a pious person who suffered from
the weakness of being afraid of ghosts:
“I am told,” he says, ‘‘that you are afraid of
spirits. The Sovereign Spirit of our God is every-
where, and without His Will or permission no other
spirit dare stir. Those who fear this Divine Spirit
502 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
ought not to fear any other. You are beneath His
wings, like a little chicken under those of its
mother; what do you fear? In my youth I, too,
was a prey to these imaginations, and in order to
get the better of them I forced myself when quite
a child to go alone into places which my fancy had
peopled with fantastic terrors. I went alone, I say,
but my heart was armed with confidence in God.
Now I am grown so strong in this confidence that
darkness and the solitude of the night are delightful
to me, since in solitude I realise better the all-
embracing Presence of God. The good angels are
there round about us like a company of soldiers on
guard. The truth of God, says the Psalmist, shall
compass thee with a shield; thou shalt not be afraid
of the terror of night.*
“This feeling of safety you will acquire little by
little, in proportion as the grace of God grows in
you: for grace engenders confidence, and confi-
dence is never confounded.”
See how, with this timid, fearful soul, he makes
himself weak and infirm. If I may be permitted
to add to this great example my own poor and
worthless experience, I would say that when I was
young I was greatly afflicted with this weakness.
It was indeed, perhaps, the chief impediment to
my entering the Order of St. Bruno, which is, in
my opinion, the holiest, as it certainly is the most
retired and the most steadfast of all the religious
orders. I, however, lost this infirmity as soon as
I had received the imposition of hands from the
Blessed Francis de Sales, and I may add that
Almighty God permitted me to succeed, in the
*Psaim xi. 5.
His Portrait 503
episcopal chair, three Saints of that order which I
revered so much, namely, Saints Artauld, Audace,
and Anthelme.?
His PORTRAIT.
I have known great servants of God who would
not on any account allow their portraits to be
painted, imagining that their doing so must involve
some degree of vanity and dangerous self-com-
placency. Our Blessed Father was not of this
opinion, but, making himself all things to all men
that he might win all to Jesus Christ, he made no
objection to having his portrait taken when asked
to do so. He gave as his reason that since we are
obliged by the law of holy charity to communicate
to our neighbour the representation of our mind,
imparting to him without dissimulation or jealousy
what we have learnt concerning the science of sal-
vation, so we ought to be still less niggardly in
pleasing our friends by placing before their eyes
the picture of our outward self which they so
earnestly desire to have.
If we see, not only without annoyance, but even
with pleasure, our books, which are the portraits
of our minds, in the hands of our fellow men, why
grudge them the picture of our countenance, if it
contribute anything to their satisfaction. On this
subject he expresses himself as follows in one of
his letters: ‘“‘ Here, then, is the picture of the
1Six Carthusians occupied the See of Belley: Ponce de
Balmay, St. Anthelme, Raynauld, St. Arthaut, Bernard,
and Bd. Boniface of Savoy. (Trésor de Chronologie. Chez
Palmé, Parts, 1889). Audace, first Bp. of Belley, was not
canonised, nor was he a Carthusian.
504 The Spirit of St. Francis De Sales
earthly man, for I am unwilling to refuse you any-
thing which you desire.
“Iam told that my portrait has never been really
well painted. That, I think, matters very little.
surely man passeth as an image. Yea, and he is
disquieted in vain.*
“ I borrowed it in order to send it to you, for
I have not myself got my own portrait. Ah! if the
image of my Creator were imprinted in all its splen-
dour on my soul, how gladly would I let you see it!
“O Jesu, tuo lumine, tuo redemptos sanguine,
sana, refove, perfice, tibi conformes, effice. Amen.”
Thus did he turn every subject into an occasion
of elevating the soul to God.
Upon BLESSED FRANCIS’ TRUE CHARITY.
Since charity was the animating motive of all that
our Holy Bishop thought, said, or did, and since
it was in truth his very spirit, we cannot better close
these reminiscences of that saintly spirit than by
quoting the words of the Prince of the Apostles:
Before all things have a constant charity among
yourselves, for charity covers a multitude of sins.
Let every one behave himself according to the dis-
pensation of grace. If any man speak, let him
speak as the words of God. If any man minister,
let him do it as of the power which God administers,
that in all things God may be honoured through
Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and empire for ever
and ever. Amen.t
*Psalm xxxviii. 7
1 Peter iv. 8, 10, II.
THE END.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
A
Abandoning ourselves to God, 278
Adaptation to times, places, and circumstances, St. Francis’
104
Affability and gravity, His, 203
Almsgiving, 116
Ambition, 492
Anger, His victory over, 319
Animals, Instance of his compassion for, 497
Anxieties, On interior repose amidst, 365
Aspirations, 248
B
Beatitude, His favourite, 202
Benevolence, Love of, 61
Bishops’ care of their flocks, 438—-The duty of, 440
Bishop of Belley, Encouragement to, 459—sermon of 481
Bishopric of Geneva, His promotion to, 434
Blessed Lady, His devotion to our, 303
Body, Contempt felt for, 146
C
Calmness in tribulation, His, 179
Calumnies, The virtues we should practise under, 164
Camus, Advice to on resigning his See, 446
Charity, the short road to perfection, 50
Charity and Chastity, 141
Charity excels both Faith and Hope, 70
Chastity and Humility, 143
Christian, Upon the character of a true, 65
Common life, Upon following, 237
Communion, "Holy, 305
Complaining asin, 175
Complicity in the sins of another, 378
Compassionate mind, A, 461
Condescension, a virtue, 103
Condition in life, Contentment with our, 340
Confession and Communion, 393-396
Confessor, Upon a change of, 397
Confidence in God, 35
Confraternities, Upon joining, 288
Confusion (penitent), 364
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
C (continued.)
Considerateness, A Priest should have in saying Mass, 456
Contentedness, 341
Contentment in the privation of content, 269
Contradicting others, Upon, 97
Controversy, 484
Convents, The founding of, 424
Courts and Courtiers, 494
Criminals who despaired, How he dealt with, 204
Cross, Upon the shape oi, 185
D
Dead, Upon speaking well of the, 346
Death, 348
Dependents, The deference due to, 109
Desires to love God, 69—309
Desolation of spirit, 279
Detraction, 90
Devotion, does not always spring from charity, 265
Devotion, eccentricities in, 286—its degrees, 261—its test,
262—to our Blessed Lady, his, 303—to the Holy winding
Sheet of Turin, his, 306
Diamond Cross, 186
Die in God, What it is to, 357
Die, The wish to, 350
Dignities ecclesiastical,432—His refusal of, 437
Diplomacy, Political, 491
Direction, Different methods of, 399
Director, Having a, 401
Discouragement, 367
Dispensations, The golden mean in, 216
Distrust of self, 37
Doing and enduring, 251
Duty, Doing our, without respect of persons, 463
E
Eat of anything that is set before you, 217
Ejaculatory prayers, 250
Elect, Small number of the, 122
Encouragement of the Bishop of Belley, 459
Enemies, Forging them,1ror—loving them, 99
Equivocating, 379
Esteem of men, Despising the, 161
Exactitude, Love of, 229
Excuses, 159—for the faults of others, 84
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
F
Faith, Increase of, 30—Temptations against, 31
Fall, Rising after a, 369
Fasting, 211—Doubts solved as to soldiers, 215
Frugality, 223 é
Gentleness, Power of, 189—with his servants, 113
God, Abandoning ourselves to Him, 278—Confidence in, 35
—Disinterested love of, 64—Mercy His throne, 36—
Presence of, 254—How to speak of, 284—Should suffice
for us, 49—What it means to be His servant, 263—
Waiting upon, 42—Will of, 270—Blessed Francis’ unity
of Spirit with Him, 255
Good Will, 309
Government of Nuns by religious men, 427
Grace of God, Upon its presence in our souls, 280—and
nature, 297
Gravity and affability, His, 203
H
Heaven, Upon the Desire of, 352
Humiliation, 156
Humiliations, Voluntary seeking after, 153
Humility of Blessed Francis, 147—-Examples of his, 147—
and Chastity, 143—Various degrees of, 151—Measure
of, 154—With regard to perfection, 157—1in the will, 151
—in speech, 150
Hunting, 498 A
Illness, His holy indifference in, 183
Illnesses, Upon long, 181
oe others, A Priest in his sermons should not aim at,
469
Imperfections, 371
Iinportunities, The bearing with, 174
Incarnation, Thoughts upon the, 389
Inclinations, Good natural, 283
Indifference, His sublime thoughts upon, 274
Infirm, Upon receiving such into a Community, 425
Insults, How to profit by, 172
Introspection, May be exaggerated, 298
J
Joy and sadness, 259
oo. spirit of Blessed Francis, 450
udgment, Hasty, 93
Judging others, 86—ourselves, 89
Just man falls seven times a day, 372
Justice and Mercy of God, 40
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
K
Kindliness towards ourselves, 370
Knowledge which puffs up, 382
E
Law and the just man, 67
Learning and piety, 444
Length of life, 358
Liberty of spirit, 295
Love and anger, His victory over, 319
Love of God in general, 55
Love of God, All by love, nothing by force, 58—All for the
love of God, 56—Called love of benevolence, 61—Upon
disinterested, 64—Upon not putting limits to, 66—What
it is to love God, 53
Loving to be hated and hating to be loved, 123
M
Magdalen, Holy, at the foot of the Cross, 188
Malefactors, Condemned, his solicitude for, 121
Mass, His advice to a Priest upon daily, 453—A Priest cele-
brating should be considerate of others, 456
Maxims, some spiritual, 166
Memory and judgment, 468
Mercy, God’s throne, 36—and Justice, 40
Mercenary spirit and a holy desire of reward, Difference
between, 44
‘Merit, 308—318
Misery, our, appeals to God’s mercy, 36
Modesty, 145
Mortification, 207—and Prayer, 252
N
Name, Upon a good, 161
Nature and grace, 297
Natural virtue, 297
Neighbour, On the pure love of him, 77—Upon bearing with
him, 79—Upon ridiculing him, 95
Nuns, Upon the government of by Religious men, 427
O
Obedience, 123—Upon Blessed Francis’ exact, 127—that
may be practised by superiors, the, 126
Overeagerness, 292
P
Passions and emotions, 320
Passion, Some thoughts upon the, 74
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
P (continued.)
Pastoral charge, Upon the, 441
Patience, 168—Upon its power, 189—Striking examples of,
193—In suffering, his test of, 180
Peace (interior), Amidst anxieties, 365
Penance, 362
Perfection, Charity a short road to, 50—On the state of, 219
—Marks of progress in, 219—In religious houses, 221
Pharisaism rebuked, 416
Philosophy (heathen), Upon its vanity, 76
Philothea, The origin of his book, 323
z Piety and learning, 444
Plans, we must not be wedded to our, 430
Poetry, What he drew from some lines of, 337
Poor, His love of the, 138
Portrait, His, 503
Poverty, the Christian view of, 139—The love of, 129—134
—The spirit of, 137
Prayer, Mental, 245
Preaching and Preachers, 475
Pro-passions in our Lord, 319
Prosperity, 140
Prudence and Simplicity, 242
Purity of heart, 142
Purgatory, 360
Purgative way, 374
x
R
Reason and reasoning, 490
Recollection (interior), 250
Recreations, How he sanctified me 335
Reformation (interior) 299
Refusing, His never refusing what was asked of him, 118
Rejoinder, Striking and instructive, 201
Religious superiors, 418
Reproaches, Quiet endurance of, 153
Resignation to the Will of God, His 271
Respect of persons, Doing our duty without, 463
Retirement, His love of 333
/ Reward, Holy desire of, 44
S
Saints, the example of the, 330
Sanctity, The odour of, 415
Scripture, Quoting Holy, 490
Scruples, 384
See, Advice to M. Camus as to resigning his, 446
Self-distrust, 37
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
S (continued.)
Self-knowledge, 38
Self-pity 427
Self-sufficiency and coptentedness, 341
Sermons, The love of them, 332—Short, 472
Servants, Deference due to, 10og—The way to treat, 111
Sick, The care of the, 344—His reverence for, 342
Simplicity, His esteem of the virtue of, 226—and prudence,
242
Sin, Venial, 376
Sins of another, Complicity in, 378—That he who complains
sins, 175
Sinners, His hopefulness of their conversion, 117
Slander, go—Solitude, Upon, 379
Soul, The wish to save our, 282
Souls, The care of, 442
Spirit, Liberty of, 295
Spiritual consolations, His gratitude for, 256
Suffering, His test of patience in, 180
Superiors, Religious, unlearned, 422
T
Tauler, a saying of, 247
Tears, The shedding of 258
Temptations, Upon, 385
Trinity, His vision of, 301
V
Vanity, 381
Virtue (Perfect), 25—The honour due to it, 465
Virtues, His estimate of the, 26—Lesser virtues, 28—We
should practice when calumniated, 1647
Visitation Order, Upon the institution of, 407—His defence
of his New Congregation, 412
Vision of the Most Holy Trinity, 301
Vocations, 238—Religious, Test of, 233
Vows, Against making rash, 310
W
Will of God, 270—Nothing save sin happens to us but by
the Will of God, 275—Hlis resignation to, 271—That we
must always submit our will to it, 273
Winding sheet, Holy of Turin, His devotion to, 306
Word of God, The love of the, 332
World, Intercourse with, 289
Z
Zeal, True and mistaken, 404—-For souls, 440, 441, 442.
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